Carload of Coats, Pajamas, Mittens Goes to Community Center The Sunday School children generously donated their offering money to be used for the purchase of coats for The Community Center in Katonah. We were able to buy 30 winter coats in various sizes for boys and girls along with several pajama sets. We also collected 50 pairs of mittens/ gloves and 17 hat/scarf/mitten sets. Carol Powers drove the items over and they expressed their appreciation to her. Thank you to everyone who brought in the mittens and who donated money for the children’s offering. Confirmation Class Field Trip to Another Church A Newsletter of the Pound Ridge Community Church Sunday School Ann Cappetta, Sunday School Coordinator [email protected] www.poundridgecommunitychurch.org January 2009 26 Kids Participate in Christmas Pageant Dec. 21st. This is Claire Schacht. I was just writing to share my thoughts on St. John's church. Their church was very different from ours in many ways. First, throughout the service you had to kneel and then stand or sit. They had cushions under the pews to pull out and kneel on. Second, they used wine instead of grape juice for communion. Also, you could drink out of the cup if you wanted to. Another difference was that the church used 4 candles instead of 2 and the beginning of the service was different, with more than one acolyte. The church also had the children's time in the beginning of the service instead of at the end because all the children participated in communion. Finally, the church had two scripture readers instead of one. These were some of the differences I observed at St. Johns. - Claire Schacht, Confirmation Class of 2009 Confirmation Class Participates in Kick-Off Retreat Tom Gossett and Denise Denson accompanied Jake Dahldorf, Elizabeth Gossett, Morgan Cappetta and Tristan Vernon to the Bishop’s Confirmation Kick-Off Retreat on November 21st and 22nd at Camp Epworth. They joined many other kids in a variety of activities and fellowship. It was a bitterly cold weekend and many of the activities were outdoors. Needless to say, everyone was frozen. Perhaps that dampened spirits a bit—as no one wanted to write an article for Kidnotes about the retreat. Cookie Decorating for St. Mary’s Each year, Lisa Reach coordinates a mission project to provide Christmas cookies for the Christmas dinner that St. Mary’s church in Katonah provides to the needy of Westchester Co. She baked many dozen cookies and they were decorated at the church on Sunday, Dec. 21st by 4th graders and up. Many thanks to Lisa for doing this and involving the children in such a fun project. Ryan stole the show with his fabulous singing. January Sunday School Thank you to Kathy Dinin, our fearless music leader who worked with the kids every Sunday to get them ready to sing in the pageant. Thank you to Bruce Lorenz who at the 23rd hour devised an ingenious way to hold up the backdrops. Bruce’s skill also gave us the stable which he created a few years ago. Thank you to Kathy Longson, Darcie Peck, Jessica Carroll, Nancy Heaton and the many other moms, dads, and grandmas who got the kids to the rehearsals. 3 Kings to Stop at PRCC on Their Way to Bethlehem Sunday, January 4th is 3 King’s Day at PRCC. We’re on a roll here—for a few years in a row, the 3 Kings have stopped at Pound Ridge Community Church to leave treats in the children’s shoes during Sunday school time. We’re hoping they’ll stop by again on January 4th. The children in the upstairs rooms will take off their shoes and leave them outside the classroom doors and hopefully, get a surprise after church! Bring in some grass or green leaves if you think of it as a treat for the camels! The following children received attendance awards for the Fall term: Aidan Carroll Meghan Driscoll Tommy Heaton Ryan Heaton Miriam Sullivan James D’Ambrosi Austin Cappetta Alison Capozzi Perhaps the parents should receive a shout-out as well! Good job! December was a whirlwind of activity for many of us and I hope parents talked about the real meaning of Christmas with their kids. I often wonder if kids really know the nativity story since we often skip over it since we don’t have Sunday School near Christmas. It’s unfortunate that the curriculum is designed in such A way that the Christmas story is taught on Dec. 21st, when many churches have their pageants and special events going on then. For the PreK through 4th grade classes, in January, we do pick up the Christmas story with the visit of the wise men. These men were non-jewish, and important fact for the readers of the book of Matthew because it pointed out that Jesus came for everyone, not just the Jews. These men were not kings, but probably Persian astrologers, men of science who studied the skies. The gifts they brought were extravagant in those days and symbolized their allegiance to this new person who was destined to be a great influence in the world. January 11th skips ahead 12 years to when Jesus is a young boy and has returned home from Egypt to Nazareth. He was excited to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of the Passover. He was now old enough to take his place among the men at the Temple and have some in-depth theological conversations with the elders. His knowledge amazed them. Mary and Joseph would have traveled in a large caravan of people and somehow lost track of Jesus, thinking he was with relatives. On January 18th, the lesson is about John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. He was the son of Elizabeth and Zehariah and was born just ahead of Jesus and was to be the one who would prepare the way for the coming Messiah. John was concerned about the moral decay in the Jewish faith and urged people to repent and to be baptized in the river as a sign of their repentance. When Jesus came to be baptized, God’s voice proclaimed Jesus as his beloved son. On January 25th, we learn that Jesus went off by himself in the wilderness where he contemplated his ministry. He could have turned stone into bread, but he didn’t. He could’ve made a public show of God’s power, but he didn’t. He remembered the scriptures and chose to do the right thing. The 5th/6th/7th grade class is a little ahead of the younger grades. On January 4th, they’ll learn about the baptism of Jesus. On January 11th, Jesus begins to choose his 12 disciples. On Jan. 18th, they’ll learn about Jesus’ first public January 14 21 28 Julia Barone Austin Cappetta Luke Long To see your child’s birthday listed here, please email Ann Cappetta at [email protected]. miracle. At the urging of his mother, he turns water into wine at a wedding. There are 3 important things to consider in this story. One, it is a miracle. Two, the miracle triggers belief in the disciples, and three, the action was forced upon Jesus before he was ready. For tweens, who don’t feel ready, this shows that God puts people and challenges in our way and forces us to be ready sometimes. January 25th is the Sermon on the Mount—the beginning of Jesus’ teachings—known as the Beatitudes. They are a statement that declares certain people to be fortunate—not who we would think! This sermon gives us the Golden Rule and the Lord’s Prayer. If you’d like to look it over, you can find it in Matthew 5—7.
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