May 3, 2024
Dear church,
This coming Sunday we will celebrate the following 8th graders as they affirm their baptisms in worship: A.J., Izzy, Grant, KaliAnne, Hunter, Elsa, Mason, Alyson, Charlie, and Mac. This day is a celebration of each one of these individuals and their particular stories of faith. It is also a celebration of our whole community and the story we get to tell together because of the promises of baptism. We are really looking forward to sharing this day with everyone! As always, red is the color of the day, so we invite you to wear red as we celebrate with our 8th graders!
Ahead of Sunday morning, we wanted to share with you our thinking behind some of the changes we have made to the Affirmation of Baptism service this year:
We’ve moved the service from the fall (typically Reformation Sunday) to the spring because the confirmation cycle of learning comes to a close at the end of the 8th grade school year. This means that, in the fall of their 9th grade year, our students can jump right into High School activities, and not have to wait until late October to celebrate their Affirmation of Baptism!
Rather than decorating stoles with symbols, each 8th grader has chosen a word that holds special meaning for them when it comes to their walk with God. After discerning their word, each of them created a piece of art with that word in the center. The rest of the students and leaders contributed words of affirmation, and those words surround the artwork. These will be displayed in frames in the narthex on Sunday morning – make sure to take a look at them!
The students will not be wearing robes on Sunday, primarily for two reasons: one, even though the robes we wear in church are intended to symbolize our baptisms, wearing a robe can often make us feel like we are completing something, graduating from something. We want it to be super clear to our youth that this is not the end of their faith formation; rather, this is another step in their lifelong journey with God! We also want to celebrate the individuality of each student, so have invited them to wear whatever makes them feel most themselves for this celebration.
Show up on Sunday, ready to celebrate these marvelous humans and the gifts God has given them! Thanks for being their community of faith and for helping them know what it is to belong to the body of Christ each and every day.
Pr. Sarah and Lisa Sampson
Every Friday, we send an email to the congregation and any others who would like to learn more about the Grace community. The last four Friday emails are posted below.