Category: Around the web

Holy Week for Children

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Many people around the web seem to be searching for resources to help explain the core stories of our faith, celebrated during Holy Week, to young children. In their inquiries I hear a fear and reluctance to talk to children about death and resurrection. Sometimes we hide this fear in metaphor by talking about dogwood blossoms or butterflies, but metaphors are confusing for most children. We will not scare children by talking about death. It surrounds them in the natural world. They play it dramatically in their games. Many see it within their families and community. The fear is more on the part of adults trapped in the cultural taboo of not discussing death, than it is in the minds and hearts of children. Continue reading →

Earth Education Resources

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Cindy Coe, Episcopal Educator and member of the Hope4CE Facebook group is generously sharing her resources on earth education from a spiritual perspective with Hope4CE. She is especially interested in partnering with churches and camps who may want to pilot these resources currently in draft form and then give her feedback as they move toward publication. Thank you, Cindy for your generosity.

Curriculum Resources for Episcopal Organizations.

Burying the Alleluia: A Lenten Spiritual Practice

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Another Lenten practice to either think about for next year or if you are doing this already to live more deeply into this practice

faithumchurch's avatarJourney into Faith - Learning, Loving, Leading at Faith United A United Methodist Church

Burying Alleluia SanctuaryFaith’s worship and spiritual formation staff is introducing our congregation to the Lenten spiritual practice of Burying the Alleluia this Lent. While the practice of Burying the Alleluia might be new to Faith UMC, it is an ancient Christian tradition practiced in many faith traditions. Read on to learn more about this Lenten spiritual practice.

Alleluia is a word heard throughout the Christian world regardless of language. Alleluia is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew word Hallelujah, a word meaning praise the Lord. In the Western world, Alleluia came to be associated with the celebration of the most important season of the Church year, Easter. The association of Alleluia with Easter led to the custom of intentionally omitting it from liturgy during Lent.  It’s a kind of verbal fast, not with the intention of depressing the mood of our worship services, but instead to create a sense of anticipation…

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Lifelong Faith Journal

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The Lifelong Faith journal is one of several initiatives of the LifelongFaith Associates organization directed by John Roberto, a prominent scholar of faith formation whose work was profiled by Hope4CE in a recent post. The journal, published quarterly, focuses on the faith formation of all ages, with the hope that ministry leaders might be better equipped to nurture the faith of those in their care in each moment of their lives. Continue reading →

Holy Week Box

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This is a wonderful idea for sharing the story of Holy Week with young children. Thank you Camille LeBron Powell and Linda LeBron.

Camille LeBron Powell's avatarCamille LeBron Powell

This is an idea that my mom, Linda LeBron (a fabulous retired church educator), came up with a few years ago. We’ve used it with our moms’ Bible study group. It’s something that families could make together at home, in a class, or even as part of a worship service with interactive prayer stations.

Our family made one with my daughter when she was 3 1/2 years old. It led to some great conversations about communion and ultimately to her taking communion for the first time that Easter.

Here it is:

All of the supplies can be found at a regular craft store: cardboard box with lid (approximately  2″x2″x3″), marker, white fabric, green paper, scissors, simple wooden doll (they came in a bag of 12)

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Cut the green paper to resemble 2 or more palm branches. Shout “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!”…

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21st Century Resources for Lifelong Learners

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It can be a challenge to keep up with the variety of resources out “there” in cyberspace – whether on “insert name of large online bookseller & purveyor of all sorts of things,” various social media outlets, websites, wikis and the like. I’m even having a time keeping up with all the GREAT information being shared on this new, dynamic, social-media integrated hope4ce platform!

Today I offer some resources for 21st Century learners – and leaders of learners. One is an approach to evaluating the resources that come your way. The other is a list of some of my current favorite resources. Perhaps you’ll have others to add to share – I hope so.

In the future, I’ll share some other collections of resources assembled around various topics that just may be of interest to this diverse, energetic group of folks who care passionately about nurturing faith among children of God of all ages.

21st Century Resources for Lifelong Learners

Rev. Sarah F. Erickson, D.Ed.Min.
Director
The Center for Lifelong Learning, Columbia Theological Seminary