Junior Church is what we call ‘Sunday School’ here in The Benefice, because we want the children to know that they are a valuable part of our churches, and through their session, we want to enable the children to know God and to take their part in the life of the church.
It is also important to us that we help them to grow in an understanding and love for the Bible and the traditions of the Church, and we do this by supporting the children in developing their own spirituality through age appropriate activities.
If we want our children to know God, then we must INSPIRE them to want to know God. So we strive to:
Instruct them in what the Bible says and God demands.
Nurture their faith by listening and responding sensitively.
Support them in finding the words to pray and to worship.
Pray for them every day.
Identify with them.
Recognise our reliance on God touching them.
Encourage them to put their developing faith into action.
The Session
The session will often include some or all of the following:
Eligibility
All children who are in primary school are eligible for our Junior Church. Any children under this age remain with their parents in church, and you are most welcome to ask for an activity bag to use during the service, or if they have a quiet toy feel free to bring it along.
Prayer
We want our children to learn to be able to talk to God and to know that He wants them to talk to Him about things that are important to them.
We want our children to learn to pray for each other.
Worship
The children learn songs and learn to understand what it is they are singing about.
Teaching
The lessons are carefully planned to match the readings from the Church Lectionary.
We recognise that children have different preferred learning styles, and this is catered for through a variety of activities in the session
Junior Church takes place during the service, and then at The Peace the children come back into church, and will encourage everyone in church to talk to the children after the service about what they have done.
If you are new to our churches, then please do speak to the person welcoming you into church and they will be delighted to point you in the right direction.
School Admissions
We often get asked about the faith supplementary form for Holy Trinity School Admissions. When you join us in church, we have a sign-
These signed forms are the information that Fr Ian will use to prove eligibility. The onus is on the parent to ensure that they sign the form each week (if we have a Benefice Service, sign the form there, as this will still count, even if we are not worshipping at Holy Trinity Church that week)
As we have a number of requests each year, we will only sign forms for those who are eligible and meet the criteria.
For more information about the form, please contact the school directly.
In respect of Admission for Church of England Secondary Schools, we use the same form in Junior Church. Please note the faith based criteria for admission to these schools is very strict, so we encourage you to check what the admissions policy is as soon as your child begins primary school.