Welcome to St. Paul’s Sunday School. Please remember that it is never too late to register; just join us on Sunday mornings during the 9:30 am service. Sunday School is open to all children age three and above. Registration cards are available on the children’s snack table before and after the service. The high school class takes place after the service in the Belden Room. This class is open to all high school students, especially teens in tenth grade or older who are wishing to be confirmed.

In addition to our weekly lessons, the Sunday school has an active community service program. Each month we try to educate the children on a different way in which they can follow God’s teaching and help the world around them. In October, the children learned about Habitat for Humanity. First we learned about the importance of the program and then, we participated in one of our favorite projects of the year- we painted pumpkins to help decorate for the sloppy- joe fundraiser dinner. The kids put so much effort into this project; some children stayed after class in order to get their pumpkin “just right”. We hope everyone who attended the dinner got to enjoy the beauty of these pumpkins. Thank you to Mimi Dyer for setting this up for the children. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. Thank you also to all the teachers, teens and parents who helped out that day and to Bill for all your hard work with the “great pumpkin move”. We couldn’t do it without all of you.

We sometimes wonder if our children listen and understand all that we are teaching them. This goes for at home and during our classes. Recently, I had a student come up to me with a bag full of money that she wanted to give to the offering. She told me that she had held a lemonade stand during the summer and she wanted to donate all the proceeds to charity. In an age when our youth are bombarded with images of material things, she took money she worked for and gave it to those in need. I think she’s hearing the message. She is not the only student who has done wonderful things; we have had students raise money in their school for projects they learned about here, like school supplies and tuition for the Dominican Republic, hurricane relief in Haiti, Pennies for Peace in Central Asia. We try to emphasize the importance of helping others. It could be raising money for a project or simply giving of your time and talents, such as painting the pumpkins for the Habitat for Humanity dinner. Rich or poor, it doesn’t matter; we can all help our neighbors. St. Paul’s has an amazing group of children and youth here. I feel blessed to know them.

This past month we had a wonderful tour of the Old Narragansett Church led by Janet Pyne. The children really were interested in learning about how our ancestors worshipped here 300 years ago. There were lots of questions, but the children were grateful to return to the warm and comfortable Parish Hall. We thank Janet for leading us on this tour. Also scheduled in October is a forum by Bishop Abraham Nhial of South Sudan. We are looking forward to this exciting event. We’ll keep you posted on how it went and on future events as they come up. Pageant sign-ups are around the corner. Hard to believe it is almost that time. In late November, keep an eye out for flyers and additional information as it becomes available. We are hoping to have a lot of participation in this annual event on Christmas Eve. Stay tuned. Come join the fun and remember friends are always welcome.