Letter from Katie • January 21, 2026
"Men exist for the sake of one another. Teach them then or bear with them."
--Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, VIII:59.
Jacob Lawrence, (American, 1917–2000)
From the series Great Ideas of Western Man., 1958,
oil on fiberboard, 20 3/4 x 16 3/4 in. (52.6 x 42.4 cm.),
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Container Corporation of America, 1984.124.171
Dear Holy Comforter,
One of the first things most visitors notice about Holy Comforter is how involved our children are in our services as readers and communion servers participating joyously in our singing and the gospel procession, and welcomed to receive communion after their baptism. As it says in our worship guide each week:
We are a multigenerational church and welcome children as full participants in our community. Adults are practicing hospitality by welcoming the noise and wiggles of our youngest worshipers; children are practicing reverence by using whispers and quiet movements. We’re all practicing becoming like little children in God’s kingdom!
We place a high emphasis on children's inclusion in worship for several reasons:
Including kids reminds us that church is not a performance, but a participation in God's kingdom. While it's nice to listen quietly to a sermon or take in a beautiful liturgy, that's also one of the least effective ways to grow as Christians, and tempts us to view church through a consumerist lens. Instead, mature faith is formed in us as we actively practice self-giving love and sacrificial hospitality toward some of the most vulnerable people in our midst: our kids. And learning to practice gentleness, patience, and self-control in our community of faith helps us to practice those same virtues in our homes, schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.
Including kids reminds us that God has a real, living relationship with people of all abilities. This includes children as well as people with disabilities. All baptized Christians have a real relationship with God and real gifts to bring to the church. It's important that we practice making space for those gifts so we can learn to better see and appreciate them.
Including kids connects us to the global church and encourages hospitality towards those who are different from us. Most Christians in the world worship alongside children, as the church has for most of its history. Welcoming children's noise and wiggles connects us to the global church and helps our worship feel more hospitable to people from different backgrounds. Adults at Holy Comforter often report that our children's presence makes our worship feel more hospitable to them, too, particularly when they are weary and struggling. They know they can show up just as they are, because they see our children doing that each week.
We take our baptism vows seriously. When we baptize infants, we promise to raise them together in the household of faith. Every Sunday is an opportunity to make good on those promises.
I’m excited to announce that we’re taking the next step in developing our children's formation program by hiring Matt Wooldridge to be our part-time Children’s Formation Coordinator.
He’ll be working alongside Erin Payne, our Lead Children’s Catechist, and me to establish our Atrium for our 3 to 6-year-olds and to develop formation opportunities for our older children and families. You can learn more about the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium here, but it is essentially a sacred space for our children to encounter Jesus, their Good Shepherd.
I’m very excited to have Matt join our staff, and I’m grateful that he’ll be sharing his administrative gifts and passion for spiritual formation with us in this role.
If you have any questions about how we approach our children’s spiritual formation at Holy Comforter, please reach out to me.
With much love,
Katie
