Special Events

The Children’s Program at Grace offers several service, enrichment and fellowship events in an effort to deepen our children’s understanding of the world we live in and the needs of those around us. In addition, we offer parenting seminars in the Sunday Adult Seminar time slot periodically. The following is a chronological list of our annual Special Events.

Costume Sunday

Children and adults are invited to wear their Halloween Costumes to church on the last Sunday in October. This makes a special Sunday for the children and they will be able to share their dress up creations with their church friends and leaders.

Share the Harvest Thanksgiving Basket Outreach Event.

Every November, Sunday School classes collect canned food and boxed items to prepare baskets of ready-to-go Thanksgiving meals for the Morristown Soup Kitchen.

Grace Church Christmas Pageant

This annual favorite takes place at the early (4:30 pm) service on Christmas Eve each year. Children are invited to sign up to be a member of the pageant cast and enjoy pageant rehearsals, with the Carolers (choir members) starting in late November. Each year 50 to 65 children participate in our Christmas Pageant as a principal player, narrator, angel, animal, or member of our Carolers’ choir. This special service is not to be missed!

Scavenger Hunt

On the fourth Sunday of January, children enjoy a scavenger hunt inside the church while the adults meet for a parish-wide annual meeting. Children count pews, decipher stained glass windows, and answer trivia questions about plaques hung around the church proper. They are allowed to wander the altar and the choir stalls and to feel out the sacred spots of the church.

Ash Wednesday Children’s and Underground Services

On Ash Wednesday, the first Wednesday in Lent, children and older youth are invited to attend an Ash Wednesday service designed specifically for them. The Ash Wednesday Service for Children is for kids in Preschool through Second Grade. The Ash Wednesday Underground Service is for youth in Third to Sixth Grade. Both of these services are held downstairs – the children’s service in the Children’s Chapel and the Underground service in the Underground Room. These services are held at 7:00 pm, during the adult service time, on Ash Wednesday. Children rejoin their families upstairs, for Holy Communion, after their services.

Pajama Sunday Outreach Project

On Laetare Sunday – the fourth Sunday of Lent (or the “pink” Sunday) -- children and Sunday School teachers come to church wearing pajamas and slippers! Families and adults bring in new pairs of pajamas to donate to children in need, as part of this fun event.

Maundy Thursday Footwashing Compline for Families

This special compline service features parents and grandparents washing the feet of their children and then the children washing the feet of their elders. A popular event that helps our kids to feel how intinmate and generous the act of washing His disciples feet was for Jesus.

Good Friday Children’s Program

On Good Friday, children gather right next to the altar (directly after the Noon to 3 pm adult service), for a Godly Play story on Jesus’ Death and Resurrection. After the story is told, children do an art response and then lay their pictures at the foot of the cross. This is a quiet and meaningful way of exploring the difficult feelings that surround the death of Jesus.

Easter Drama: Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

At both the 9 and 11:15 am services on Easter Sunday, the Children’s Program acts out the story of Easter, specifically the events surrounding Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene in our parish hall. The script is taken from a Godly Play story, and both children and adults help dramatize these events for our parish children. Afterwards, children ask questions about the story and they draw pictures in response to the story.

Easter Egg Hunts

Grace Church provides fun Easter Egg hunts for all parish children following the drama of Easter, described above. Hundreds of eggs are hidden in the Children’s Chapel and the classrooms upstairs and downstairs and each child receives five eggs and an Easter Cross. Children have the opportunity to flower the Easter Cross, at our Easter services, and each family receives an Easter plant to take home.

Doll Play by the Girls of Grace

In April of 2010, nineteen Girls of Grace, in Fourth to Sixth grades, wrote and performed a play based on the stories of friendship and conflict found in the American Girl Doll series. The girls performed the play for two sold-out shows and raised $2600 for a scholarship fund. An event like this will take place every year in the Spring.

Far Out Camp Out

Starting in June 2009, the Grace Church youth, in Fourth to Sixth Grades, have enjoyed an overnight camp out on the grounds of Grace. In 2010, twenty-three kids took a yoga class, explored the theme of gratitude, roasted marshmallows for s'mores and enjoyed sleeping in tents on our beautiful church grounds. A tradition we will continue!