In March 2020, restrictions resulting from Covid-19 required the parishes of our diocese to suspend in-person worship and activities, including faith formation gatherings. To meet the need of our diocesan children to still gather together in homes and with each other to hear the Word of God and learn about God’s love for all creation, we began offering Diocesan Sunday School each week. We will continue to share these sessions with you until we are able to gather safely in our churches again. We are so glad you are here with us today!

Participating in Diocesan Sunday School

Each session follows a similar pattern, and takes about 20-25 minutes to view. We begin with a prayer, then read a story from the Spark Story Bible. We talk about the story, and what it tells us about God and our relationship with him. Then, we suggest an activity or craft to do at home before closing with another prayer.

Families are welcome to use the videos, posted on the Diocese of New Jersey’s YouTube channel, in whatever way works for them! Some families may prefer to watch them on their own schedule, and can pause and start the video to accommodate their own discussions. Other families may want to participate in our Sunday morning sessions at 9:00 am on Zoom, which last about 45 minutes. All are welcome!

Diocesan Sunday School Resources

Each week, we offer discussion questions and activities or crafts that families can do at home. These are great ways to work faith conversations into your home routines! We call this bringing faith home, and it’s one of the most important things you can do to build your family’s ongoing relationship with God. Most activities can be done independently, but occasionally we offer links to other helpful resources that can help!

• Pentecost Coloring Page from Illustrated Ministry
  (Pentecost/May 31)

• A Dove for Peace from Flame Children’s Ministry
  (God’s Peaceful World/June 14)

• A Good Branches activity
  (A Good Ruler/June 28)

• Jesus the Healer Play-dough Mat from Flame Children’s Ministry
  (Bartimaeus Sees/July 12)

• Psalm 150 Coloring Sheet from Flame Children’s Ministry
  (Zechariah/July 19)

• Epiphany Star Gifts from Reformed Worship, simplified by Traci Smith on Building Faith (Wise Men/January 3). Illustrated Ministry has a great cut-out for this activity.

• Baptism Activities from Flame Children’s Ministries—a coloring sheet and a play dough mat (Jesus’ Baptism/January 10).

• The Martin Luther King, Jr, Day of Service Guide for Faith at Home, plus a discipleship coloring page (The Disciples/January 17).

• (Non) Magnetic Poetry Prayers to print (The Lord’s Prayer/January 24).

• Origami Boat Instructions and a Jesus Calms the Storm Play-Doh mat from Flame Children’s Ministries (A Storm/February 7).

• Mealtime Prayer Cube to print, fold, and glue or tape (Jesus Feeds 5,000/March 7).

• Butterfly template (The Transfiguration/March 14).

• Palm Sunday palm fronds to print and color, from Illustrated Ministry (Palm Sunday/March 28)

• The Beatitudes resources from Flame Children’s Ministry: Beatitudes cards and prayer cards (The Beatitudes/July 4)

• Other resources from Flame Children’s Ministry: A Light of the World play-doh mat and a salt crystals project (Salt and Light/July 11)

Lent Faith-at-Home Resources

• Lent Madness began at Forward Movement in 2010 as a fun and irreverent way to combine the friendly competition of sports with Lenten devotions focused on the saints. It has gained in popularity each year, and has quite a following across the country (and possibly around the world). Each year, a selection of 32 saints are placed in a competitive bracket format, with online voting each weekday of Lent to determine who moves on in each round to ultimately win the Golden Halo. Learning about saints, who are complex, not-perfect Christians like many of us, is a great way to engage children in a Lenten faith-at-home activity--check out this Grow Christians article for suggestions! Fill out your bracket, follow the competition, and vote for your favorites! 

• Using a calendar template from Praying in Color is a simple, daily, and playful but serious practice for praying our way through the forty days of Lent. Each day, choose a word to ponder or a person to pray for. Write the word or name in the allotted space with a pen and draw or doodle around it. Add color with colored pencils or markers, or stick with pencil or pen. Let the word or name speak to you. If words come to you as you draw, pray them. If not, just continue to draw or doodle, stay quiet, and let the word or name burrow into your mind and heart. Returning to the calendar each day establishes a special time to be present to God and to listen.

• Candle Press offers a beautiful and simple set of weekly devotions for use at home. This free resource can be downloaded and kept on the kitchen or dining room table, or by the bed for nighttime prayers each week in Lent.

Advent Faith-at-Home Resources

Advent Wreaths (A Child Called Immanuel/November 29) are a great way to mark the weeks of Advent at home. They can be traditional (evergreen, real candles); modern (wooden or metal, real or LED candles); or simple (paper and tea lights). They can sit on your dining room table, kitchen counter, or coffee table—wherever your family gathers. Light one candle beginning the first week of Advent, add a second candle the second week, and so on. Here are some links:

• A paper Advent wreath—print and color! (Tip: blue or purple are traditional Advent colors, but use whatever candles, real or LED, you have on hand.)

• Advent wreath prayers to say each Sunday as you light a new candle.

Advent Calendars (Angels Visit/December 6) are a tactile way to focus the anticipation of Advent as we move through December towards Christmas. There are all sorts of different kinds of calendars! Some have treats behind each window, like chocolate or even LEGOs, and some have bible verses or reflections for each day. Here are a few to try:

• Here is a simple Advent calendar to print and color from Thomas Mousin.

• This Way of Love Advent calendar has some simple faith actions and reflections for this season.

• #AdventWord is a digital Advent calendar—a great way to be creative!

A Jesse Tree (Mary Visits Elizabeth/December 13) is a wonderful way to tell the story of Jesus’s family tree, through a daily series of Bible stories from the Old Testament. Based on the verse from Isaiah (11:1) that “a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots,” these stories connect the lineage of Jesus all the way back to the story of creation, using colorful symbols to represent each story. Use a smaller or tabletop tree for this—some ornaments are even magnets and can be hung on the fridge!

• Here is a free, printable set of ornaments to print and color from our friends at Flame Creative Children’s Ministry. This neat little booklet also has some caring conversation points, Advent activities, and coloring sheets.

• If you are interested in making or purchasing a more permanent set of ornaments, Etsy is a great resource for both patterns to make or sew at home, as well as sets of pre-made ornaments that are quite beautiful. Many sets coordinate with the Jesus Storybook Bible, one of our favorites!

Adding figures to a Nativity Scene (Jesus is Born/December 20) during Advent is a wonderful way to prepare for the birth of Jesus. Children and adults alike can participate in gradually introducing figures into a creche scene, waiting until Christmas Eve (or Day) to add the baby Jesus. The Three Kings can be placed at different locations around the house as they journey towards the Christ Child, arriving on Epiphany (January 6). Some families have heirloom quality nativity scenes, but simple (and sturdy) wooden or even plastic figures work just as well for younger children! Two to consider:

• A paper cut-out Nativity Scene from Made by Joel. Download, print and color for free!

• Playmobil (plastic, some small parts) Nativity Scene. There is a separate Three Kings set too!

Songs of Praise

Make a playlist of your favorite songs about Jesus! They can be traditional hymns or contemporary favorites. Here are two songs to get you started!

Additional Faith at Home Resources

We hope these Sunday School sessions will inspire more faith-filled conversation at home. Don’t let fear of saying the wrong thing, or not knowing an answer, keep you from including your faith in conversations with your children. God has trusted this job to you—you are equipped through the Holy Spirit! These resources can help, and we are also here to help! Here are a few of our favorite faith-at-home resources:

• Grow Christians is a blog site written for parents of faith—or, “a community of disciples practicing faith at home”!

• Flame Children’s Ministry offers craft ideas for the seasons of the church year and for many, many Bible stories. They also have some great resources and methods for praying with kids.

• Vibrant Faith at Home has an exhaustive list of faith-at-home activities, searchable by age range (from small children to adults) and topic.

• Illustrated Ministry has a selection of modern, dynamic coloring pages and family devotionals for both church and home use.