Each Sunday morning during the worship service, we offer a program for children under 3 years of age, in our nursery, called "The Ark". The Ark is a place which provides a safe and nurturing environment for our smallest disciples! Parents are welcome to stay with their child, as the Ark provides a space where you can still hear and see the worship service.

We also provide a fully screened and qualified nursery-worker to care for your young child in the Ark. The United Church of Canada requires that anyone working with children is screened with a thorough background check as well as providing a clear criminal records check.

Children spend about 20 minutes each Sunday in worship with their parents. They then receive a blessing from the Minister, and proceed upstairs to a Children’s Worship Centre where they experience God and grow in faith and spirituality through the Godly Play Program.

Godly Play aims to:
• make religion come alive for children
• assist their spiritual development
• help Christianity become part of daily life
• make the language of religion familiar

Godly Play assumes:
• children are individuals with different needs children have a variety of ways of learning play is an important way of learning for all children religion is about daily life, not Church on Sunday

Where has Godly Play come from?
• The Montessori tradition of education
• Sofia Cavalletti's work on religious formation of the child
• A US group called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
• Twenty years of experience in churches in the USA & Canada

Godly Play involves:
• telling the religious stories using three dimensional materials to invite listeners into the stories and to connect the stories to their personal experience
  
• moving to wider dimensions of faith with the use of open questions and a time of responding to the story with a creative activity
  


• allowing the children to decide for themselves on a way of responding to the story, which may be learning to re-tell the story by using games, books, maps or puzzles or by responding to the story by doing some artwork; (Children have a variety of learning styles, if the leader chooses one activity for everyone, the style of that activity will not suit all the children equally. If they choose for themselves from a range of options, they are likely to choose a learning activity that suits their learning style.)


• organizing the group's time and space so that it models the Christian community we seek to be. The room can then become a peaceful place in which the mystery of God can be experienced
  


• relating to worship of the church by learning religious language and modeling each session on the Eucharist, with a Preparation (meeting and greeting), Ministry of the Word (listening to and responding to a bible story), Communion (sharing food and drink) and a Blessing and Dismissal (saying goodbye).

Source: An article by Margaret Dean in May2000 edition of Together With Children

For more information visit the Godly Play website.

Children respond to the stories and worship time in separate groups based on their interest/age. We have several centres set up in our Learning Lounge, Library, Youth Centre, and Discovery Place which are all age-appropriate. Some of the opportunities for response and reflection time may be:

• art
• journals
• storytelling
• games
• music
• Older children may participate in a Children's Discipleship Group

"CELEBRATE TOGETHER" worship services

Throughout the year, several worship services are held which involve adults and children of all ages. On these Sundays, everybody worships together for the entire time – the service is geared toward keeping everybody’s interest, and maximum participation.

Monthly on the 3rd Sunday. For families with children in preschool or kindergarten. A "snack and chat" for 20 minutes following the worship service.

At Gilmore Park we recognize the need for families with young children to connect with one another in the church. We are committed to providing opportunities for building community and learning about God together in a way that reaches our youngest theologians.