The Eliot Church High School Youth Group’s activities revolve around the 3 S’s: spiritual, social, and service. We have fun, do cultural activities and service projects, and grow together spiritually. In 2010-11, we had regular “lunch and video” gatherings at member’s houses- times to have fun, reconnect, share a meal, and reflect on various spiritual topics (often through watching short videos, such as those from the ‘NOOMA’ series). Our youth group enjoyed overnight lock-ins, as well as gatherings of pure fun, such as trips to Six Flags, and paintballing!
Besides service projects working with the rest of the Eliot Church Sunday School (such as cleaning up the glass on Coolidge Hill in Natick or Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger), we have baked bread for the Natick food pantry, served meals for Natick’s Open Door Thursday suppers, and offered readings, dramatizations, and musical interludes during holiday and special Eliot Church services. The youth group especially enjoyed contributing to Eliot Church service Sundays- times when the whole church made emergency hygiene kits for Church World Service, wrote letters to children in Haiti or to legislators to end Hunger, and helped beautify the space in front of the Natick Service Council.
Several of our participants have joined other Natick Church youth in preparing for and traveling to the West Virginia Work Camp, an ecumenical Christian ministry that serves families in Appalachia, helping to make homes warm, safe, and dry.
Eliot Church’s Religious Education program and larger governing body is adopting a “Safe Church Policy" to ensure religious education and youth group activities at Eliot are safe for youth and adults. The safety and well-being of each and every child and adult at Eliot Church is the number one priority and goal of our church. Our Religious Education classes are a safe place where everyone is able to feel welcome, comfortable, and valued. The Safe Church Policy includes guidelines relating to topics such as “The Two Adult Rule,” an “Open Door Policy,” “Visibility,” “Touching,” “Field Trips” and more. The final Eliot Church Safe Church guidelines will be available for members to read after the September Parish Committee meeting.
Questions? Contact Matt Carriker at <mcarrike@hotmail.com>
