Children
Birth through Age 12
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3
At St. Stephen’s we respect and nurture each child’s innate spirituality and understanding of God’s profound love for them, tailoring experiences in worship, education, and fellowship to the individual developmental needs of the child. It is our role as their faith community to help support and be with our children along the way.
Register your child
Registration for the 2026-27 program year opens August 27. One form suffices for all activities for that child. Registration not only helps us plan more effectively; it also provides important information about your child to our staff.
Sundays at St. Stephen’s
Sunday morning formation
Our Sunday morning formation hour is organized into three classrooms — ages 4 through Kindergarten, grades 1-3, and grades 4-5 — using a hybrid curriculum built by Whitney Robertson from Love First, Sparkhouse Whirl, Mini-Revolutions, and select enduring elements of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Every child is cherished in their full dignity as God’s beloved. Our approach centers on wondering together: leaders present content and then facilitate children’s own meaning-making through story, play, arts and crafts, movement, and song, welcoming children of all energy levels, learning styles, and neurodiversity. Formation follows a scriptural thread — loving ourselves, loving God, and loving our neighbors — that deepens as children grow from classroom to classroom. Each Sunday follows a consistent routine, and every gathering is meant to be a shared, mutual spiritual experience for children and adults alike.
Take-home materials
Each week when you pick up your child at the conclusion of the Sunday formation time, you will receive take-home materials about that day’s lesson, including suggested questions for the ride home. A take-home activity will also be provided at the 9 a.m. Palmer Hall service.
The bridge to middle school and the main church
Periodically, fourth and fifth graders in the Palmer Hall service will be invited to the service in the main church for a preview of what to expect from transition to middle school when their family might attend that service rather than the one in Palmer Hall. In addition, youth ministry coordinator Caroline Harris will engage monthly in Palmer Hall to build relationships with this age cohort before they transition to middle school and the formation opportunities that will be available to them.
St. Stephen’s Choristers
The St. Stephen’s Chorister program offers not only an excellent education in music, but imparts skills for life. Formation in leadership, teamwork, service, work ethic, commitment, and friendship will serve each chorister well in whichever walk of life they choose. The choirs seek to instill confidence and poise in each chorister in order to be part of a team—both as members and as leaders—whose sum is greater than its parts.
The chorister program welcomes young people grades 1-5 and is inclusive of all genders. Choristers sing for services in the main church at St. Stephen’s and in Palmer Hall, a separate chapel that offers services for families with young children. Choristers are trained in the fundamentals of musicianship and chorister conduct. They serve primarily in Christian worship services, but welcome young people of any or no faith background.
The chorister program uses the curriculum from the Royal School of Church Music called Voice for Life, an excellent graded approach to vocal training, sight-singing, music theory, and leadership.
Holy Baptism
Baptism is the sacrament signifying our identity as children of God and our commitment to walk in the ways of God throughout our lives.
Baptism serves, as well, as a sacrament of welcome into the Body of Christ—for children and adults. In it, we celebrate God’s love and embrace for God’s people as unconditional and absolute; we are “marked as Christ’s own forever,” making Baptism a sacrament that is done only once in a person’s life.
Baptism is also a time when the community of faith gathers to renew its own commitment to Christ and to support those who are being baptized in their life in Christ. So it is appropriate that baptism take place, whenever possible, in the midst of the congregation during the Holy Eucharist as the chief service on a Sunday or other feast day.
The Book of Common Prayer designates certain days in the liturgical year as being especially appropriate for the celebration of Holy Baptism. These are the Easter Vigil (Saturday night before Easter Day), the Day of Pentecost, All Saints’ Day or the Sunday after All Saints’ Day, the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord (the First Sunday after the Epiphany) and the annual visit from one of our bishops.
Instruction
In the early Church, adult baptisms were the norm as more and more people heard and responded to the Gospel. Adult baptisms continue to be the cause for great celebration in our church. We encourage adults who are exploring the Christian faith at St. Stephen’s to discuss the possibility of baptism with one of the members of the clergy. Many adults who wish to be baptized take part in an Inquirers Class as part of their preparation.
If you wish to bring your child to be baptized, both the parents and godparents of the child will receive instruction from a member of the clergy in anticipation of this happy occasion.
Upcoming Dates
Available dates for Holy Baptism are listed on this page.
St. Stephen’s Church offers a nursery for children through age 4. Trained and caring staff take care of young children during Sunday morning services (9 and 11:15 a.m. during the academic/program year, and 10 a.m. during the summer), the Sunday morning formation period (10:10-11 a.m.) and during the Sunday evening service of Celtic Evensong and Communion. The nursery is located on the lower level of the parish house in the same area as Dogwood Preschool. Greeters are happy to help you find your way to the nursery.
You are also welcome to bring your child(ren) to a service with you. Questions? Contact Abby Kocher.
Deepening Grace: Sacraments for Children and Parents
In a revised version of what has been called “Solemn Communion,” St. Stephen’s offers a three-week concurrent study for parents and children on Sunday mornings called “Deepening Grace: Sacraments for Children and Parents.”
This offering is on hold for the current program year. When it resumes, we’ll publicize it in the Spirit, eSpirit, and the family ministry newsletter.
Seasonal offerings
Children and their parents can take part in a variety of seasonal offerings in addition to regular Sunday formation and worship. These include:
- Summer offerings: the family ministry team plans a range of events to occur throughout the summer, some for families to do with their children, others for specific ages of children. We began offering this new array in 2025 and it replaces the traditional one-week Vacation Bible School. This change was designed to make it possible for more children and parents to engage at St. Stephen’s over the summer, when camps, vacations, and other activities can make it difficult for families to take advantage of VBS.
- Blessing of the Animals in October on a Sunday just before or just after St. Francis Day, October 4; there are two options: bring your pet to the Palmer Hall service service for a blessing and/or attend a service that afternoon on the lawn outside the church.
- Thanksgiving meals for those in need; St. Stephen’s delivers food boxes assembled by families and individuals to provide holiday meals to people identified by our outreach partners.
- Advent Fair; an all-ages event where you can make a fresh Advent wreath and find a variety of resources for observing the season at home
- Live Nativity; an outdoor pageant when children through grade 5 wear costumes and are arranged in several tableaux–complete with live animals–where older children read portions of the nativity story aloud for visitors who walk from station to station.
- Christmas Pageant: until 2024, this event was presented by youth in grades 6 through 12. For the 2024 event, parts were added for young children toward the conclusion of the pageant.
- Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper on the evening before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.
- Agape Meal: a supper and simple liturgy in the fellowship hall that recalls Jesus’ last meal with his friends before his trial and crucifixion; takes place on Maundy Thursday, the night before Good Friday. Instrumental music and optional foot washing are also part of this observance.
- Easter egg hunt: Easter Day on the Grove Avenue lawn and the playground between the 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services. We begin at 10:15 a.m. to allow time for all families attending 9 a.m. services (one in the main church, one in Palmer Hall) to gather outdoors.
Dogwood Preschool
The leaders of St. Stephen’s Church and Dogwood Preschool are thrilled that this outstanding preschool relocated to our campus as of summer 2023. Read more about Dogwood here.
