Sunday, October 27, 2013

Blessing of the Animals 2013

We had a wonderful celebration of St. Francis's feast day early in October! The service of Holy Eucharist was enhanced with an animal blessing and some exotic animal visitors. I have been so busy I forgot to post the pictures. Here are some photos to give you a feel for this wonder-filled service!

Many dogs raised their voices in song this year!
We had a great group of dogs, a number of cats, and some rodents too!
Sandy loves Church!
Our preacher Carol and her support team.
My dog Sydney enjoyed the service tremendously!
Carol our preacher, Rev. Peter our celebrant, and friends!
Our Christ Church girls are not afraid of spiders!
Look at that smile!
All creatures great and small...
The exotic animal parade!
Rev. Peter could not get far enough away from this snake!
This wallaby youngster was in its mother's pouch
at last year's blessing!
The Yak! It took a little coaxing to get him down the aisle
and then he didn't want to leave.
What a beauty!
At the end of the service animals came
 forward with their family for a blessing.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Pet Blessing Sunday!







Join us this Sunday, October 6th at 10:30 am as we celebrate the feast of St. Francis with a service of Holy Eucharist and Blessing of the Animals!


Bring your pets (on a leash or in a cage) to Church! 



There will be a parade of exotic animals during the service!


Everyone will be invited to bring their pets forward for a blessing.  


See you Sunday!

Christian formation will begin at 9:15 am as usual and atrium will end early so that everyone can enjoy the service. The Nursery will be open from 9:00 am until the conclusion of the 10:30 service.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Atrium Beginnings

Flower arranging is a peaceful work.

For me it has been a very joyful beginning to atrium this year! We've had two wonderful new children to draw into our atrium and many lovely returning children to guide along the way. We are blessed to have Marilyn Wright joining us in the True Vine Atrium this year. Marilyn was one of my first Catechesis of the Good Shepherd trainers and she is an accomplished Montessorian and catechist. Her deep understanding of the Catechesis and her gentle guiding spirit are making such a difference in our atrium this year and I find I am already learning so much working with her.

As we begin the new year, we've been creating opportunities for the children to become engaged in the materials provided in the atrium. There are such riches in each work to be discovered. We present each material to the children, but often the deepest learnings are made by the children themselves while working on their own. It was a joy to see the children working peacefully with many different materials this week. I am so thankful for all three of our atria and for all of our beautiful materials made by Christ Church's catechists and parishioners!

I took a few pictures of our little group working on Sunday and thought I would share them with you here. We have made a beginning!

Many hands have set the model altar already this year.

Deep concentration is needed to find the unfamiliar names of Israel on the pin maps.

Matching the cards describing the articles we find on
 the altar is a work that seems to satisfy the children.

The Good Shepherd is a familiar friend to children
 moving up from the Good Shepherd Atrium.