In England the schools run by the Church of England are some of the only places where children can be educated in a climate that represents a true cross-section of their communities.
Judy Valente of the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, profiles Holy Family School in Chicago. Founded in 1985 as a small Lutheran school, it flourishes today as Holy Family Ministries, a nonprofit social services center and an Episcopal charity, as well as a Christian school.
America, the Jesuit weekly, carried this report on its blog In All Things last week:
“For some of us, our minds run faster than our senses can keep up; for others, our minds go slower than our bodies want to move,” said Rev. Kate Heichler, pastor of Christ the Healer. “This service welcomes children and adults to open their spirits to God’s love, however that is experienced.”
The brutalised body on the cross rather than the innocent child in the manger, or Jesus, the radical incarnation of mercy and love, became the dominant icon of Christianity. The sadistic and sacrificial manner of Jesus’s death, rather than his gracious, benevolent and merciful life, became the dominant narrative.
It sounds like the future, but it’s happening now: “cryopreservation” has yielded a baby born after developmental suspension lasting 19 years, 7 months.
“Navigating church with a challenging child isn’t easy, and I understand why many families who desire to be part of a community of faith decide they can no longer deal with the raised eyebrows, the cramped physical space or the implicit comparisons with all the seemingly normal children.”
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which sits in the heart of a neighborhood often torn by shootings and stabbings, offered its backyard yesterday as a safe space for children to play.
Here’s a possible vision for the future of Sunday School, when dwindling supplies of money and people may force churches to push their resources together.
These kids have learned that not even in good-old American business must we dominate one another.