Reconciler has decided that it wants to have on some schedule some services that are intentionally inclusive of children, but not having a children's service as such. The materials I have found on this are quite varied. Quite a few are centered on services created for children next are services that are oriented towards creating a "family" oriented service as an additional service provided in the parish, and few materials oriented towards how to simply attend to the fact that the worshiping community includes children. All these approaches say that philosophically they are committed to the inclusion of Children in the worshiping life of hte church, not simply accommodating children in a worship service. All say that worship is something to be taught through doing. All are claim that the approach to children and worship is the means to obey Christ in his command "Do not hinder the littel ones from coming to me."
What all these approaches don't contemplate or simply reject outright is that children aren't simply children: while children aren't just little adults they are on a process of quite rapid development to being adult persons. It seems to me that the corporate worship of the church is one place where the telos of a child should be emphasized and the passing temporary world of the child is attended to but not emphasized. That is if in worship we are addressing the whole person of the child then in some sense we need to be addressing who this person as child is becoming and is to become. In fact I would say the liturgy so addresses the child we simply need to guide the child in attending this address. In fact this is what we all find in the liturgy: what is addressed is someone who we currently are not but to whom we are called. The liturgy of the church isn't an adult world as such but the world of the coming kingdom of God. In the liturgy we are brought into contact with what is not us. If we are truly including children we will teach them that their world is passing away, that they are not who they are to be, that in fact none of us are who we are to be, all things are passing away we are all together moving into and being formed into something other than we currently are.
The most helpful in this regard as it turns out are those resources that believe in more or less major transformations of the liturgy (I didn't find free church resources helpful here as they all assume that each instance of worship is constructed more or less from scratch from various elements, and was about how to construct these elements each week with children in mind). I found this helpful because of what these resources felt they needed to retain, that remained outside the "world of the child". In reviewing what these resources retained it occurred to me that they weren't simply retaining things that adults could relate to but that in fact the Gospel, Christian faith is something beyond the full grasp of a child. The child needs to learn to be comfortable with being asked to attend to that which they don't understand. But then again it occurred to me this is what the liturgy should do in the first place for all. In the liturgy, in worship, we encounter the one whom is beyond our grasp. We encounter the Gospel that is something other than we are, we are invited into the Kingdom of God, which is beyond our comprehension.
What I have concluded we need to be doing is what we should always be doing and which should be a reminder to ourselves about what we do as we submit to the liturgy of the church. What I am guiding Reconciler in doing in its services inclusive of children is inviting them to attend and participate in something that is not of their world as children, that is beyond their ability to understand,but in so doing I am also reminding myself and their parents and the whole congregation that this invitation to attend and wait upon that which is beyond oneself is what we all are doing. This is why the liturgy doesn't change radically from week to week or necessarily even age to age, we are being brought into contact with that which overflows the acts we do, and yet it is through these acts that we encounter what we do not know. It is in fact the way we do so. Invention and creation of variations in fact distracts us from that what we do in worship is not ours.
Granted we can become so familiar with the forms that we assume that the liturgy is our possession, but that is simply a sinful response to the liturgy, not its true meaning. The hope of the true inclusion of children in the liturgy is that we are all reminded that in the liturgy we are called beyond ourselves and encounter what we do not know and cannot fully comprehend. In the liturgy we encounter who we are to be.
I guess one question for you is what age you are thinking of when you want to include "children." This has been a challenge for us so far. I am really looking forward to Will getting old enough to participate in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, because it seems the best resource for helping children participate meaningfully in worship. But right now Will just can't sit still during the service, which puts the strain on us as parents not to disturb our pew mates (even in the most child-inclusive of congregations, the glances as your child squirms and chatters are too intimidating for most parents to handle and we end up slinking out the back). So we have him come in to receive communion, which we call "God's Special Food," but it is so disconnected from the rest of the liturgy that I don't know how much of a worship experience it can be for him. At home we do "Thank you God" before dinner, and he really likes that, and clearly has made it into a liturgy for himself, saying thanks for the same things in the same order each day.
ReplyDeleteLaura, that is a good question. In terms of this reflection and the resources I have been consulting as far as I could tell the assumption is all ages, though in terms of what they actually suggest mostly grade school and up.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Reconciler and what we have decided to do: our 4 children are all under 6 years of age. So, yes issues with sitting still during service. We however have some movement in the service and we don't have pews. Our space is fairly flexible in terms of how we arrange things.
It is probably useful to know given your question that at Reconciler what has lead to attempting to include very young children who may not be able to sit still or be quiet for the whole service is that we are small enough that providing children's Sunday school during and child care during our service was proving difficult to staff every week.
We'll see how it goes. It may mean that every several services we simply have a chaotic service that some people may not be comfortable with. My hope is that given that our space is flexible, that we don't have pews and so a child needn't simply sit still and that we don't simply stay in one place in our liturgy.
But then I am influenced by the idea that pews and even chairs were a bad innovation in our liturgical practice and providing seating for those who can't stand and allowing people and children to wander about a worship space during the liturgy is appropriate, and to return tot he sense that a posture of prayer is standing. Though Reconciler isn't completely with me on this so we still do have seating for everyone. just not pews.
In anycase my hope is that designating some Sundays as times when children will take part in the worship that others will be more accepting of children who aren't sitting still, also my hope is that our not having pews and that we move about the space already will make children possibly wandering about less distracting and seem more naturally a part of our worship. We'll see how it goes. And we'll see how our parents who are the ones who helped me think up some of this will feel. Admittedly having young children in a service is a challenge especially if worship means sitting still and being silent, which isn't my expectation though still is many peoples.
At Reconciler we have all our children brought into the service for communion, We have taken to calling it "Jesus bread" at Reconciler.
that is helpful to know the context. You might chat with Gordon Atkinson at Real Live Preacher on what they do at his church, even though he's not pastor there anymore. They seem to have a similar approach to what you're thinking.
ReplyDeleteWhile some Orthodox parishes segregate out the children during the Liturgy of the Word (or the Catechumens), brining them in for the Liturgy of the Sacrament (or the Faithful), it has been my limited experience in all the parishes I've attended that the children are there for the entirety of the Liturgy. This is true at All Saints. From newest churched infant to teens.
ReplyDeleteIt may be due to the different anthropology that Orthodoxy has relative to the general tendencies in non-Orthodox churches. The Orthodox worship is inclusive of all the senses and mind and heart. I would not call the services irrational or anti-rational, but verbal catechesis is about twenty minutes in the homily, the rest is experienced in song, incense, color, touch, and so forth.
Yes, my girls get restless and "bored" at points through the service (which on a "normal" Sunday is about two hours). And no they don't "capture" everything rationally. No one does, and that's not the point.
Orthodoxy just has a different focus when it comes to worship, and I think that is what makes it conducive to children's participation.
(I sincerely apologize for any "triumphalistic" tone here. Please read the tone as one of "pleasant surprise." I would never have thought this would be how my children would "adapt" to Orthodox worship.)