Children, Youth, Families

 

Our church welcomes children and young people to its worshipping life (see below).  We also see it as part of our calling to support and serve children and families in the community.

We do this in many ways: through our Baby and Toddler groups, by offering hospitality and support to children’s organisations (Brownies, Beavers, the Boys Brigade, after-school clubs) and by partnerships with others, for example, for example, by hosting the Raising Children with Confidence course offered by the Children and Families department of Edinburgh City Council.

School chaplaincy: Our Minister shares chaplaincy in South Morningside Primary School with the ministry team of Greenbank Parish Church.  Morningside Parish Church usually hosts their Christmas, Easter and end of year services, and both ministry teams are available to help resource the delivery of the curriculum, with Time for Reflection, and pastoral or other support.

 

Children from South Morningside Primary School helping to lead worship at the 2017 Church of Scotland General Assembly when Dr Browning was Moderator. 

 

 

Church activities for children and young people. Our Crèche and Sunday Club (see also separate page) meet each Sunday in the Braid Hall. Children normally meet first in the Church for the beginning of the 10.30am service before going through to the Braid Hall for activities. Sunday Club formerly used Spill the Beans as its core material.  We have recently moved to using Roots for Churches.

Children are involved in different ways in the worship life of the Church. On most Sundays a child will either give the opening prayer, read the first lesson, or give the offering prayer.  Every Sunday, the children help with collecting the offering. 

For lots more pictures of our Sunday Club activities, see the Sunday Club page!

Children and Communion
There is one communion in the year at which children are involved and play a part. This all-age communion takes place at 10.30am on the first Sunday in March. Children are encouraged to stay for the whole service on this Sunday, though crèche facilities are available in the Braid Hall.  For the other communion services in June, October and December children would normally go to the Braid Hall for crèche and Sunday Club after the first part of the 10.30am service.   The last couple of years, some of the children have baked bread for this communion service – always popular!

There are other services throughout the year where we try to include children and young people more fully.  For example:

Harvest All Age service. Usually the last Sunday in September.  

Remembrance Sunday: Representatives of the uniformed organisations are involved in this service.

Christmas All-Age service: Sunday 15th December 2019.  Our Sunday Club children and young people present the story of the Nativity, often in a quirky and different way!  In 2016, we dramatized Jeanette Winterson’s book, The Lion, the Unicorn and Me.  In 2017, we presented ‘An Unexpected Christmas’, based on the story by Simone Graham (pictures on the Sunday Club page). This year as part of the presentation there will be a ‘Sweet Nativity.’

All Age Communion: See above – the first Sunday in March.

June All-Age service: usually the third Sunday in June (at which our regular Sunday Club children receive a book in recognition of their participation throughout the year). 

For the Uniformed Organisations (Boys’ Brigade and Girls’ Association, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts), please see the tabs on the drop-down menu for this page.

The Church of Scotland and Morningside Parish Church are committed to ensuring the safety and welfare of children and young people.  Our Safeguarding Coordinator is Paul Cackette.
Email
: paul.cackette@hotmail.com
Tel.    : 07890 911 989

Click here to access information and contact details for the Church of Scotland’s Safeguarding Service.