The Children’s Church at Corpus Christi is managed and organised by the Children’s Church Superintendent. Training and material is issued to the Sunday School Teachers, who volunteer their services.
1. Children’s Church Procedure
All the children – from three to seventeen years old – meet in the barn / hall for a short worship service on Sundays at 09h00. They have a service that follows the pattern of the Eucharist: praise, penitence, reading from scripture (usually the gospel), a short teaching based on the reading, prayers and hymns. A group do musicians lead the singing, and the children’s singing is a special and important part of the worship. The children are then divided into class groups for lessons, and join the adult members of the congregation for communion.
There are four classes:
In previous years, Corpus Christi Children’s Church planned their lessons around the liturgical year and the set lectionary readings. Old material for groups that had been collected over the years was also used. Since a more structured format was preferred, especially by the teachers, SALT teaching material from Scripture Union was ordered. This material is rich in content and creative ideas for age-suitable activities, and also has colourful take-home leaflets for the children. This material is fairly expensive, but is extremely worthwhile.
Due to school holidays material is only ordered for two of the four quarters of the year, and then spread throughout the Sunday School year. This is also more cost effective.
2. Planning
The Children’s Church Superintendent draws up an annual planning roster. This indicates the month, dates, description of Sunday, materials to be used and the readings.
Each class has two registers. One is a comprehensive form for each child in the Children’s Church with all their details, i.e. full name, address, date of birth, etc. The second is an attendance register, to be completed by the class teacher at each meeting.
The first Sunday of each month is a family service, so the Children’s Church is not operational. The children are encouraged to join their families in church. The format of the service is appropriately adjusted to accommodate people of all ages.
The Corpus Christi Children’s Church is closed during all Government School holidays. Children are again encouraged to join their families in church.
3. Teaching materials
After much research,
SALT, published by Scripture Union, was the
material of choice.
It consists of the following:
Corpus Christi orders the All Ages manual, the Teachers Manuals, Sparklers with take-home leaflets for the younger children and Trailblazers with take-home leaflets for the older children.
The manuals can be shared, but each child requires their own Sparklers or Trailblazers.
The All Ages manual is used for instruction during class, but has no take-home material.
Target Timothy is another group selling Sunday School material, and was specifically designed to appeal to the black Sunday Schools, as it is available in all the different languages.
4. Sunday School Teachers Training
SANSSA (South African National Sunday School Association) offers training for all Sunday School teachers. The course generally runs over two Saturdays for approximately 6 hours each day.
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