Grace Church Bainbridge Island

Youth & Kids

 

It’s 7pm on a typical Thursday evening at Grace and seventy happy, noisy 6th to 12th graders are sharing a delicious meal of pasta, Caesar salad and French bread in Walker Hall.

 

Grace programs for youth—Rite 13, grades 6 - 8, and Alive & Well, grades 9 to 12—meet most Thursdays throughout the school year. Dinner for all, organized by the parents, is shared in the break between an early meeting for Rite 13 kids and a later meeting for the high schoolers. These gatherings, currently led by our rector and two parishioners, are vibrant and relaxed, serious and full of laughter. All middle and high school kids are welcome. Many from beyond the Grace family find a home here.

 

Children’s Sunday morning programs are offered during our 9:30 worship service, with the Nursery for children ages 4 and younger, Godly Play for Pre-school – 2nd Grade, Storytellers for 3rd & 4th Grade and Godly Journey for 5th & 6th Grade. Under the direction of our Children and Families Ministry Coordinator, volunteers lead stories, art and music activities. Children rejoin their families in the Sanctuary in time to take communion as a family.

 

We include kids in all that we do. They’re welcome at all services, church functions, and at the annual parish retreat in Port Townsend.

 

Other opportunities for our kids include confirmation for high school students, an annual overnight ski trip to the Crystal Mountain ski area in the Cascades, and a 10- to 12-day summer backpacking trip in a Pacific Northwest wilderness area. A recent outing included a week of public service in Idaho’s Shoshone Bannock Reservation. Outreach on a local level takes place once a month when the children make and distribute sack lunches to Seattle’s homeless people.