Shirin McArthur
Church of the Apostles (located at 12111 N La Cholla Blvd, just north of Tangerine) is beginning a host of new free activities for all ages this month. Three of them begin this Sunday, April 15.
The first event is a free, informal, “Just-for-Fun High Tea” after the 9:30 service. Everyone is welcome, regardless of your age or gender. Wear a fancy hat and bring your favorite teacup if you wish, but the church will provide teacups if you don’t have one. Come on Sunday to have some fun, drink some tea and get to know the Apostles community.
On the same Sunday, Church of the Apostles will begin two special free programs for children ages 4-8.
The first is a 12-week series on Mindfulness for Children. As our children grow and are faced with difficult choices, we want them to be equipped to tune in to the Spirit of God within them. The goal is to teach them how to seek God’s guidance as they navigate life on the playground, in the classroom and in the world. This program will take place during the 9:30 worship service every Sunday from April 15 through July 1.
The second children’s opportunity beginning April 15 is a free Children’s Handbell Choir. This will take place on the first and third Sundays of each month, from 10:40 to 11:10 a.m. (following the 9:30 a.m. worship service). Church member and long-time piano teacher Jean Harrison will provide these children with an introductory musical education using color-coded handbells.
“There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain,” says Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University.
Finally, for adults, a new book study begins at Church of the Apostles on April 22. An Altar in the World was written by Episcopal Priest Barbara Brown Taylor. The book will be the subject of Apostles’ Easter-season Adult Book Study. Taylor invites all of us who “long for more meaning, more feeling, more connection, more life” to join her on a journey of engaging with God wherever we find ourselves.
In Taylor’s words, “life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention.” Each chapter of her book invites us to “focus on a certain practice—a certain exercise in being human that requires body as well as soul…and trusts that doing something is at least as valuable as reading books about it.”
The book study will take place from 10:50 a.m.-noon on three consecutive Sundays: April 22, April 29 and May 6. Please read the book before the first session.
Please contact the Apostles church office at [email protected] or 520-544-9660 to register for each of these three free learning opportunities.