Children sit with their parents in church for the first part of a Sunday service and are then invited to go through to the church hall with two leaders to follow their own activities.
These activities encourage the children to look at the world around them, to learn more about Unitarians and their contributions to the world and society, as well as discovering more about other World Faiths.
Other activities may take the form of poems, stories, arts, crafts and games. Topics have included Creation stories from various traditions; learning about Eid, Passover and Christmas; as well as current events that can be shown as relevant to their own life.
We take advantage of what Edinburgh has to offer and have had outings to the Zoo, Book Festival Events, and Dynamic Earth, as well as to Edinburgh Festival Fringe Productions.
Latest Activity: The Children's Visit to Dynamic Earth
The children were taken to see the Dynamic Earth Exhibition and although it was a rainy day, we had a very enjoyable visit. On entering the exhibition we waited to board the time/space lift.
We were taken on a journey from the present to several billion years ago. On the windows inside the lift we saw pictures of Churchill, and a starry sky in space. On leaving the lift, we first saw and were told about the story of volcanoes, and the ground we stood upon shook to demonstrate the earth's movements.
We travelled on to the melting ice age and a rain forest. In the rain forest a monkey and a tiger were visible. We saw an exhibition of how humans evolved and the elements important to human life.
In one of the rooms we sat on chairs and voted on decisions of how to preserve water, as water is a scarce commodity on the planet. The voting was done electronically, which was a novel experience. It was a fascinating visit for both adults and children.4
You can contact the Children's Programme Coordinator here: stmarkschildrensprogramme@gmail.com