Children + Youth
Children + Youth
PrayGround
Following in the way of Jesus, South Church has long sought to welcome children of all ages and abilities as precious and integral members of our faith community. We are always searching for new ways to explore and deepen that sacred and joyous calling. Early in 2017, we created a “pray-ground” in the heart of our sanctuary. This area is designed primarily for children ages 4 and under to quietly engage in age-appropriate activities while experiencing worship in the sanctuary along with their families.
The pray-ground is located at the front of the sanctuary both to demonstrate our values and to honor the way children learn. Even before anyone opens their mouth, we want our space to convey with clarity and enthusiasm that this is a congregation that celebrates the presence of children and families – diapers and tantrums and mischief and all! We understand that it takes a village to raise a child and we accept that responsibility with joyful and willing hearts. We also understand children, and we know that they can’t absorb much if they can’t move around and see what’s going on. The pray-ground puts young children right at the center of the action and creates new avenues for spiritual experience and participatory learning.
Community Nursery School
Community Nursery School offers dynamic, developmentally appropriate curriculums for young children to nurture physical, emotional, social, and cognitive growth. We have a caring, qualified staff – trained and experienced for work with young children – and always ready to learn more. Presently the school services over 100 families from through the Rivertowns and beyond.
Intentionally nonsectarian, Community Nursery School is the longest running ministry of South Presbyterian Church. Founded in 1945, at a time when high quality childcare outside the home was virtually nonexistent and totally inaccessible to lower income families, CNS began with an impulse towards feminism and economic justice.
Need-based financial aid is available.
To find out more about enrollment visit cnsdobbsferry.com or call 914.693.9072
Faith and Justice Learning / Leadership Lab
Teaching concepts of faith through sacred stories including our own experiences . . . and exploring the link between faith and justice for all God’s children. Grades 1 – 5 is called the Faith and Justice Learning Lab. In the middle and high school years, our focus turns to leadership. Those years are the Faith and Justice Leadership Lab. Read more
Grades 1 – 5 meets Sunday mornings during church. Classes focus on biblical, mythical and current stories that give examples of what faith means and how that faith calls us to serve others in need. Through activities and interactive play, we also build leadership skills that can be applied beyond faith communities to social justice communities as well. Older children will engage in actual service projects engaging with South’s current social justice programs.
Contact: Marie-Louise Miller
Grades 6, 7, 8 – Middle School Youth Group meets monthly. Using multimedia, games, and learning tools, our middle school program offer tweens a way to discover a deeper sense of identity and values while actively serving in their community through Midnight Run, Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry, Roots and Wings sustainability programs and more. Middle Schoolers can also join older teens to lead and support the teen benefit and social justice gala each year. We also lay foundational understanding for faith-based advocacy aimed at changing systems to give all families the opportunity for equal healthcare, education and vibrant food systems.
See calendar for schedule.
Contact: Marie-Louise Miller
Grades 9 through 12 – High School Youth Group: Our goal is to nurture the confidence, skills, joy, and collective leadership of young people through offering them opportunities to be part of the change they want to see in the world.
We do this by monthly gatherings that include team-building challenges, cooking and eating together, volunteering for local helping organizations, and developing relationships with adults who share what’s important to them.
The teens have carried and sorted food for the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry, participated in a Christmas on the Streets Midnight Run, and investigated and initiated sustainable shifts on the South Church campus including greater recycling and composting. They’ve hosted a Teen Benefit—using their talents to raise money for a cause of their choice. And each year, some participate in an international service trip through Bridges to Community.
More to come! All are welcome.
See calendar for schedule.
Teen Service Project Scholarship Application
Contact: Marie-Louise Miller
Confirmation
Mining the Old Stories and Writing Some New Ones, On the Way to Connection and Purpose
In 4 whirlwind gatherings we explore our own conscious and unconscious beliefs and the actions that spring from them. First, we attempt, in the spirit of poet Walt Whitman, to “reexamine all you have been told” and “dismiss whatever insults your own soul,” and get clear about the stories that have shaped our lives so far. We explore some of the questions and stories that preoccupied, nourished and challenged our Jewish and Christian forebears, and drove (and drive!) social movements. Next, we seek to express the stories that inhabit us and the stories we seek to inhabit through engagement with the arts, social justice, prayer and the natural world (some of this happens through offsite visits and hands on experiences). Lastly, we support each other to draw from our own experiences and convictions to hash out a real-world spirituality that is authentic to each of us.
This is not a “confirmation class” in the conventional sense – though part of what we hope to do is to help you to begin to confirm your own beliefs and to build a functional spirituality that can ground and guide you in the days ahead. We hope to know you, to see you, to celebrate you, to learn from you. It may not be for us to “confirm” you – though there will be an opportunity to formally join this congregation at the conclusion of this class – but it will be our great joy, in any case, to affirm you – wherever you are on your spiritual journey, to journey with you for a while, and maybe to send you off with a few new spiritual tools to play with.
All beliefs, all disbeliefs, all hopes, all anxieties welcome.
Not scheduled at this time.
Contact: TBD
