Thursday, January 18, 2007

Sitting in Church

The beginning of the new year marks another change for Elisabeth. Now that she is three, she stays in church rather than going to the nursery. During the sermon, she goes out for children's worship with the other kids, and returns at the end for communion.

Until now, Elisabeth has not been good at sitting quietly through the worship, reading and prayer portions of the service. What is remarkable to me is that in the past two weeks (since she has switched from going to the nursery during church to sitting in the service and going out for children's worship) she has dramatically improved in her ability to stay in the service. At this stage, most of the time is spent coloring, which makes me all the more grateful for the children's bulletins!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Elisabeth take communion with you or does everyone return to the sanctuary for that portion of the service?

Is that a weekly part of your worship?

Graham said...

Everyone returns for that portion of the service (and it is a weekly part of our worship), but Elisabeth does not receive communion. Young children (or anyone who does not receive communion) is welcomed to come forward for prayer. Kids like Elisabeth receive a simple prayer of blessing before whoever is holding her receives the elements.

Anonymous said...

How long is your typical Sunday church service?

Graham said...

About an hour and a half. Theoretically it is an hour and fifteen minutes, and for the first service we have to be more time conscious since Sunday school follows it; but the second service almost invariably runs longer.