Crayons adorn the altar at the 2019 Blessing of Bookbags at St. James-Santee Episcopal Church, McClellanville.
2020 Blessing of the Backpack Services and School Supply DrivesSeveral churches are planning to offer a "Blessing of the Backpacks" service and also coordinating back-to-school supply drives to assist the local communities. Find information and links below.
Back-to-School Services & Supply Drives Sunday, August 18: The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd - 8.18.2019 119-B West Luke Avenue, Summerville, SC 29483 Bookbags will be blessed during the 10:30 am service. Children are invited to bring their bookbags to church where a blessing will be offered for both students and teachers. Good Shepherd is also holding a bookbag and school supply drive for Dorchester Children’s Center, which collects school supplies all year for their kids’ school closet, and is available year-round to children in need. Click here for more information. Holy Cross Faith Memorial - 8.18.2019 113 Baskerville Drive, Pawleys Island, SC 29585 The church will offer a "Blessing of the Bookbags" during the 10:30 am service on August 18. Youth are invited to bring their bookbags for a blessing and anyone involved in education is invited to join as well. St. George's Episcopal Church - 8.18.2019 9110 Dorchester Road, Summerville, SC 29485 Backpacks will be blessed at all services (8 am, 9:30 am, 11 am). All students, teachers and administrators are invited to bring their bags/backpacks to be blessed. All are welcome. St. George's is also collecting school supplies, especially backpacks, for children of all ages. These items will be offered to schools where our Backpack Buddies recipients attend first. Please drop off backpacks and school supplies by Sunday, August 18th. A shopping list can be found in the narthex. St. Mark's Episcopal Church - 8.18.2019 1004 11th St., Port Royal, SC 29935 Students of all ages, teachers, and other educators are invited to bring their backpacks or briefcases to church during both services (9 am and 11 am) on Sunday, August 18 for the "Blessing of the Backpacks." St. Stephen's Episcopal Church - 8.18.2019 67 Anson Street, Charleston, SC 29401 Students and teachers are invited to bring their backpacks, knapsacks, and briefcases to be blessed at the 11 am service on Sunday, August 18. There will be a family fellowship hour following the service. Sunday, August 25, 2019 Grace Church Cathedral - 8.25.2019 98 Wentworth Street, Charleston, SC 29401 Students (and teachers) are invited to bring their bookbags to be blessed at the 9 am service on Sunday, August 25, 2019. 2019 Vacation Bible Schools
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Resources for Christian FormationAre you looking for a new curriculum for your Sunday School program? Building Faith has done the research for you with reviews for children, youth, and adults, as well as a resource on how to choose for your church. Find more at buildfaith.org.
Other online resources that we recommend:The Center for the Ministry of Teaching at VTS offers lots of resources for teachers, including reviews of Vacation Bible School curricula, a blog, an online magazine and more. Find it online at the link above, or connect with CMT on Facebook.
Forma is an association and dynamic community of Christian educators, formation professionals, and their institutional partners that celebrates and upholds the diverse ministries of Christian formation across the the Episcopal Church. Worshiping with Children offers a blog with amazing resources for each Sunday's lectionary. You can search by lesson or date. Storypath provides names of children's books that tie in with the lectionary. Center for Spiritual Resources is a resource portal put together by the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. Home resource onlineGrowChristians.org is a website on practicing faith at home. The site is based on a central question: How do we grow as Christians ourselves and help younger people – especially in our own families and churches – to grow as Christians too? Writers will cover topics like family prayer, reading the Bible, how to talk about the cross, using music, art, cooking, and more. It's a partnership of Forward Movement and Plainsong Farm.
Forma Conference
January 21-24, 2020 in Atlanta
Save the date for the 2020 Forma conference, which will be held in Atlanta. This joint conference featuring Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, brings together groups from across the Episcopal Church to talk about formation, evangelism, mission, leadership and much more. Many from our diocese attended the 2018 conference that we hosted in Charleston, as well as the 2019 event in Indianapolis. Registration is open and teams receive a discount. Register online through this link to be part of the DSC team. Please contact Andrea McKellar at amckellar@episcopalchurchsc.org for more details. |
