wfn.org | Georgia church kicks school year off with special service

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 22, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.     10-21-71B{360}

A UMNS Feature
By Alice M. Smith*

"Education Sunday" at Moreland (Ga.) United Methodist Church so impressed
state school Superintendent Linda Schrenko that she made time in her busy
schedule to take part.

"This is unique," she said. "This is the first time I've seen a church
anywhere in the state set aside a Sunday morning ... to get behind our
teachers, schools, children ... and devote some time in worship to getting
the school year started off right."  

County and city school officials joined her in expressing appreciation for
the congregation's support of education.

"The main thing we are here for today is to be community for our children,"
said the Rev. Richard Huycke, Moreland pastor. Referring to Hillary Rodham
Clinton's book, It Takes a Village, he said, "That is so much a part of who
we are. It takes all of us to get our children raised up. That's not very
good English, but it's true." 

The service honored not only the children who are starting another school
year but teachers and others involved in the educational system.

A retired teacher in the congregation, Hazel Rainwater, delivered the
children's sermon, asking them to repeat after her: "I can do anything I
want to do and be with Jesus."

Teachers and other education-related personnel in the congregation served
Holy Communion.  

In her remarks, Schrenko emphasized the importance of teaching values and
character in the schools, something that she said wasn't done in the 1960s
and '70s. "There is no such thing as values-neutral [education]," she said.
"We found we had schools that were valueless."

Instead, values such as courtesy, respect, leadership, commitment, honor and
price should be part of every school curriculum, she said. "Moreland [United
Methodist Church] is exemplifying what we teach our children."

Beverly Yeager, principal of Moreland Elementary school, expressed
appreciation for the church's support of her school by providing mentors for
students, sponsoring a Boy Scout troop, and agreeing to serve as an
evacuation center.  

In his sermon, Huycke stressed that education is "more than books" and that
children learn how to get along with each other and how to deal with life's
ups and downs by watching the adults in their lives. 

"Every one of us is modeling some kind of behavior, and a pair of young eyes
is picking up on it," he said. "Now, more than ever, things of eternal value
need to be modeled."

"Children have to understand there is potential beyond where they are now,
and that they have the potential to make a difference," he said. "Are we
giving our children more than just education from books? Are we helping them
to step boldly into the future, realizing we are with them, and they are
never alone?"

Huycke said the idea for Education Sunday grew out of the fact his wife
Jennifer is a teacher.  He also sees the need for a strong connection
between church and schools. 

Referring to the 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado, in which two
students killed 12 classmates and a teacher before shooting themselves,
Huycke expressed hope that stronger connections between schools and churches
"may help so that moment in history doesn't happen again."

#  #  #

*Smith is editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the newspaper of the
North and South Georgia annual conferences of the United Methodist Church.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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