wfn.org | 10th Children's Sabbath urges churches to 'write the vision'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 6, 2001  News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-71B{377}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - United Methodist congregations will join other faith
groups in observing the 10th annual Children's Sabbath Oct. 19-21.

"More United Methodist churches are doing the Children's Sabbath than any
other denomination," said the Rev. Eliezer Valentin-Castanon, a staff
executive with the Board of Church and Society. That has been the case for
at least the last several years, he said.

The timing and nature of the observance is entirely up to the members of the
local church, he explained. Some United Methodist congregations make the
Children's Sabbath part of their Family Month observances in May.

Children's Sabbath has been part of the promotions of the Children's Defense
Fund, the Washington-based children's advocacy organization founded and led
by Marian Wright Edelman. Other efforts of the fund have included the 1996
"Stand for Children" rally of 300,000 people in Washington and the
trademarked "Leave No Child Behind" campaign, which continues today.

"America's child poverty rate ... consigns one in six of our children to
hunger, poor health, homelessness and other painful, limiting
circumstances," Edelman has said. 

The Children's Defense Fund makes available a resource that includes ideas
for Christian, Jewish and interfaith worship and children's activities. The
164-page resource book on this year's theme, "Write the Vision: Creating
Communities of Shalom for All Children," includes such materials as worship
suggestions, clip art and a children's activity bulletin that may be copied.

United Methodist churches figure prominently in the book's "congregational
capsules" - brief accounts of previous events held by churches and
interfaith groups. For example, this year's resource book recounts that
Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington, Va., invited area child care
centers to participate, and it prepared special flyers and lawn activities.

In Minneapolis, the Richfield United Methodist Church's fourth- and
fifth-grade Sunday school class chose which organization would receive the
special offering, and second- and third-graders collected it in sand pails
before dumping it into a children's wagon and rolling it down the center
aisle. 

First United Methodist Church of San Rafael, Calif., celebrated with two
Children's Sabbath services on successive Sundays and activities at the
church and in the community during the week, including the opening of a Head
Start Program.

The Children's Sabbath resource book and other information are available
from the Children's Defense Fund at www.childrensdefense.org or (202)
628-8787. The 2002 Children's Sabbath will be Oct. 18-20.

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United Methodist News Service
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