New forms of ecclesial work with children and young people exist everywhere: here, an open-air “Krabbelgottesdienst” (worship for toddlers) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
IMAGO / FUNKE FOTO SERVICES
If parishes pleaded a few decades ago for us to “save Sunday school,” today, even the Church no longer wants it.
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April 26, 2024 – 1:15 p.m.
“Sunday school no longer looks like what our grandparents knew.” This is the message of a video from the Reformed parish of Bözberg-Möhntal, in the canton of Aargau.
“For us, it works”, we can still read. There we paint, we craft there, we sing there, we tell biblical stories there, staged in a way suitable for children. But these kinds of offers have become very rare.
In Aargau, traditional Sunday school is still offered in four locations, explains religious pedagogue Monika Thut of the Aargau Reformed Church. “These Sunday schools are located in small villages with a strong Protestant footprint, a little out of the way. So in places where the Church is still a kind of evidence,” she adds.
Sunday school is a concept that dates back to the 18e century. In the canton of Aargau, Reformed Sunday schools were introduced in 1905. The aim was for children to receive biblical teaching while their parents attended worship.
But in the 1980s, faced with a sharp decline in the number of children enrolled, parishes launched an appeal to “save Sunday school”.
For a long time, Sunday schools also had a social purpose. In this photo, migrant children attend classes at a potato picker camp in California. The photo probably dates from 1937.
IMAGO / HERITAGE IMAGES
This development is not surprising, as Church membership is also declining. In 2022, more than 30,000 people have turned their backs on the Reformed Church.
The Aargau Church recorded a new record with almost 5,000 departures in 2023. Childcare during worship is therefore no longer necessary.
New offers, also outside the Churches
However, other offers have emerged. Among them, the “Kinderkirche” in Aarau, the “Fiire mit de Chliine” in Rheinfelden, and the “Kindergottesdienst” in Baden. These offers often no longer take place on Sundays and today compete with extra-ecclesial activities, explains Monika Thut.
And there are also offers with a spiritual approach outside the Church. “For example, I find yoga for children very good. If the parents are more into yoga, we have no chance with our Christian tradition anyway.”
Monika Thut from the Aargau Church believes that offers that encourage children in their personal development are important.
“Even in youth associations. It’s not about performance, but about cohesion, community and attitude towards nature or people. According to her, such offers do not necessarily have to be oriented towards Christianity.
Children must come of their own free will
Even for the Church’s activities with young people and children, Monika Thut finds that it is especially the psychological aspects that are important. “It’s about how we can build children’s resilience. So that they can exist in this world where everything is about performance or beauty. We have to give them counter-values.”
The classic Sunday school will no doubt soon have had its day. The days when parents “sent” their children to Bible study on Sundays are over, says Monika Thut.
And remembering his own past as a Sunday school student: “There was always someone who misbehaved. He obviously didn’t want to come and the Sunday school teacher always had to lecture him,” she says.
Today, it is clear that those who come want to come. “It’s a great approach, even in an association or during other gatherings. We do something with those who like to be there.”
Text translated from German using DeepL/dbu
