The St. Peter’s Nursery is fully staffed and available for infants and toddlers between 8:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Sunday mornings. This is a warm, loving, and safe place supervised by responsible caregivers, with whom you can entrust your child during worship services. The nursery is located on the lower level of the Bank Barn.

Children’s Chapel is offered each Sunday during the program year. The Liturgy of the Word (the first part of the service of Holy Eucharist, including Scripture lessons and a sermon) can be a lot for young children to take in. Each Sunday in the program year at the 9:00 a.m. Family Eucharist, we invite children ages three through eight to join in Children’s Chapel to hear the Word proclaimed in ways they can more readily understand.

Children follow an acolyte carrying a cross and the Sunday Shepherd out of the main worship space in the Bank Barn and downstairs to the Children’s Chapel room, where caring leaders invite them to worship. Children “set the table,” placing a linen cloth, candles, cross, and Bible on their own altar; they give praise and thanks to God; they sing songs and specially written psalms; they hear and digest God’s Word; and they reinforce what they have learned through a fun activity. Finally, the Sunday Shepherd helps them rejoin their families at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist (at the exchange of Peace).

All young children are welcome in Children’s Chapel, regardless of their religious background or training, whether they have been baptized, or whether their families are parishioners at St. Peter’s Church.

For families with young children who wish to keep their children beside them in the “big church” throughout the liturgy, please know that your children are welcome in worship with the grownups too, at any service! To help out, cloth bags containing quiet activities such as drawing materials are available near the doors of both the Barn and the Church. If you wish, please take one on your way in.