Dear Friends in Christ,

The new school year is upon us, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with the wider parish some of the updates and changes happening with our children and youth programming this year.

Our young learners in preschool through 3rd grade will continue to immerse themselves in biblical stories through the Godly Play curriculum during Sunday School. We are excited to have four new stories joining our shelves; these recently published stories are titled: The Lord’s Prayer, Peter Changes, Peter’s Journey, and Jesus and the Women. In addition to wonderful stories, our students will get to learn songs, enjoy activities and crafts, and of course eat some yummy snacks.

Our 4th and 5th grade class continues for a second year using the Echo 36 Bible Stories curriculum from Spark House. Following the same themes as the Godly Play stories, this curriculum offers our older students the chance to be “bible detectives” as they dig deeper into scripture. Each student gets their own journal at the beginning of the year to make their own as they grow through question-asking and communal curiosity.

We have big changes coming for our middle and high schoolers! Our 6th-8th graders will be using the Collaborate Bible Study Curriculum from Spark House in combination with videos from The Bible Project to learn about scripture, faith, and how it connects to their own lives. Our 9th-12th graders will explore thematic topics of the world through a Christian lens. They will complete a series of 7-week units on Racial Justice, Interfaith Relations, Spiritual Practices, and Climate Change. With each unit, they will have the opportunity to become leaders in our parish and share their growth with the broader community. This will also go hand-in-hand with Service Sundays, which are monthly service projects for each Sunday School class!

This year, we are expanding Youth Confirmation preparation to be a year-long process culminating in the spring with Confirmation and the summer with Pilgrimage. Our 9th and 10th grade youth confirmands will not only attend learning sessions but also be asked to be leaders in worship and outreach as part of their spiritual formation. All of this preparation will shape their summer pilgrimage. In an effort to keep the focus on faith formation rather than fundraising, the pilgrimage will remain domestic and lower cost, and we will be emphasizing spiritual transformation and community formation throughout the planning and preparation phases.

Our overarching hope for 2026-27 is that the children and youth of Grace/la Gracia will feel accepted to come as they are, empowered to explore their faith in community, and inspired to serve Christ in all persons. We will accomplish this by lifting up children and youth as leaders, supporting the programs with our time, energy, and budget, and honoring the inherent spirituality already present in our young people.

On top of everything described mentioned above, we will continue to have regular Youth Nights, Youth Council meetings, intergenerational events, and involvement with Diocesan retreats and leadership opportunities. We will be busy!

I invite you to join me in praying for our young people as they enter into this new school year. Children and youth formation is a ministry of the whole church, and so it is together that we will thrive in the year to come!

Blessings,
Mother Emma+

Associate Priest

Grace School Chaplin