Note: Our supervised Nursery and Junior Church program have been ‘on hold’ since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, 2020. Our Church Council will decide when these will return to our regular schedule. When their decision is made, we will update this information on this page.
Self-Supervised Nursery (and options if your child is ‘restless’ during the service)
Since the pandemic began, we’ve been hesitant to put our volunteers and children at risk by opening up our Church Nursery in the usual way. Instead, the nursery is open on a Sunday morning for you to use, staying with your child, if your little one needs a break. No volunteers will be on duty, so a parent, grandparent, or responsible adult must stay with their child. The Nursery and the Narthex are equipped with speakers so you can hear the worship service in the sanctuary should you need to leave and make use of those areas.
Junior Church
Since the pandemic began, there has not been a Junior Church during the 10:15 service. We offer children’s activity bags that they can take to their pews to keep their hands busy while they listen. We intentionally want our time of worship to be a welcoming place for all ages and we do our best to keep that in mind when we plan.
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The following information is for our ‘regular’ Nursery and Junior Church programs before and after the COVID-19 pandemic – we are hopeful we will be able to return to these activities soon.
When we reopen the nursery, new & return volunteers will always be welcome to help lead the Nursery & Junior Church! Adults and teen helpers are welcome – contact the church office or pastors to volunteer!
Nursery
St. John’s provides a nursery for infants through kindergarten age children during our 10:15 am worship service each Sunday year-round, and during other selected special events during the year. Our nursery is conveniently located on the same level as the sanctuary, just steps away across our enclosed front porch, past the elevator lobby.
Our nursery is a clean, safe, welcoming space to drop your child. The nursery is staffed by one or more adults with experienced youth helpers. Parents need to check-in children when they drop them off. If needed, we provide a paging system (shaped like a lobster) so parents can be paged during worship if an issue should arise. The nursery provides cribs and age-appropriate toys and activities for children, but children may bring their own favorite toys along, too. The children are held in the nursery until picked up by the parents after worship. If your child has any special needs or you have special instructions, please discuss this with the adult leader when you drop off your child.
You are welcome to bring your young children into the sanctuary for worship. If at any time during the service they become ‘restless”, you may take them to the nursery and check them in with the nursery staff. A listing of the nursery staff for each week is found by searching the Enlightener, Herald or Bulletin on this website on the Publications tab.
Junior Church
For children in grades 1 – 4, most Sundays during the 10:15 am worship we offer Junior Church, which provides a structured, age-appropriate lesson, craft activities and light snacks during the later portions of the worship service. Children attending Junior Church sit in the pews with their families at the beginning of the service, until they are called to gather in the front of the sanctuary by the pastor, following the scripture readings. After the Children’s Time up front, an adult leader and youth helpers lead the children from the sanctuary to the Fireside Room downstairs. After worship they are dismissed to meet up with their families for our time of refreshments and informal conversation in the Assembly Hall. On Sundays when the children are singing in choirs, they sit with their choir leaders until dismissed for Junior Church.
There is no Junior Church on special and selected Sundays when the pastors believe it is more appropriate for the children to participate in the entire worship service, such as Pentecost Sunday. Of course, parents are welcome to decide to have their children stay in the sanctuary for the entire worship service any Sunday rather than participate in Junior Church.
