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FAMILIESWe believe that to effectively support the spiritual lives of children and young
people we need to support the whole family. Our focus is creating a culture of faith
formation that affirms and equips parents’ calling as the primary faith teachers,
mentors and role models for their own children with the church reinforcing,
not replacing, parents’ duties. While we offer age-specific activities, we also focus on
caring for and nurturing families as they grow together following the example
of Jesus. This provides a
framework for families to grow closer as a family while deepening their
relationship with God.
To facilitate this we are endeavouring to transform our Christian education from something the church does with kids for parents into something children, parents and the church do together. Offering the church community to parents as partners in their own children’s faith journey – that is what we are all about.
Our ministries that
focus on helping families grow in their relationship with Jesus are:
Sundays
Each of our Sunday services strive to
be a space that welcomes and respects people of diverse age, background and
maturity in faith. St James 10.00 service has a specific focus of engaging with
younger families and as a wonderfully diverse community, offers space for
people to express and explore matters of faith. Strategies for this include
inclusive and culturally sensitive use of language and music and provision of
creative space for children to relax or engage at their own level during
services. We include a children’s talk each week to actively engage and hear
from the children as part of their spiritual development. FamilyLife FamilyLife focusses on families, with or without children.
Each week we offer space to
reflect on our spiritual life as a family, allowing opportunity for frank
discussion and resource building in a diverse and encouraging setting. Children
are encouraged to participate as they are able and allowed space to play
together. FamilyLife meets in a
family home, currently from 3–5pm on Sundays:
Inspired
for Life! Inspired for Life! is a monthly 'messy church' event on Monday evenings. Children meet
together with their parents, grandparents or carers for a meal and interactive group
activities which involve the children and adults in learning/growing
experiences. Safe Church Communities
We
believe all people are entitled to feel safe and protected. We take the
safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults very seriously and commit
ourselves to ensuring our congregations and programs are safe places. Everyone
working with vulnerable persons is trained and endorsed through ChildSafe. You can find out more
information and read our policies on the Safe Church Communities page of the Anglican Church of Tasmania website. All staff/helpers involved in
leading activities with children and vulnerable adults have current Working
with Vulnerable People registration through the More Information For more information, or to get involved, please contact us.
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