Ministries

Christian Education

Sunday School and Nursery Care

Children’s Sunday School is held at St. Stephen’s during the 10:00 am worship service. Classes are held in our Parish Hall, with separate classes for pre-K through Second grade; Third through Fifth grade; and Sixth and Higher grades. There is also Nursery Care provided for toddlers. The Directors for Sunday School are Heather Samson and Lisa Thornburg.

Nursery Care is provided during the 10:00 am service by youth of our parish who have received baby sitter training and certification. The Director of this ministry is Margo Westfall. If you are interested in having child care during the 10:00 am service, please go to the Parish Hall before the service, and ask for Nursery Care.

The Sunday School instruction is based on the rather new curriculum from Morehouse Publishing, titled “Weaving God’s Promises”. The class sessions are not lectionary based, but Bible story based. In addition, the following special themes are incorporated into the schedule:

Church seasons – lessons on Advent, Epiphany, Lent and Easter are included at the beginning of their respective seasons
Special holidays and feast days – Lessons for these days are placed at the beginning of the seasons in which the dates fall
The church and its sacraments – Lessons cover the Anglican and Episcopal faith tradition, including the church, its ministries and the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist

The following elements are contained in the sessions:

Holy Scripture – the great stories of the Old and New Testaments are the core of the lessons, with special emphasis on the life and teachings of Jesus.
The Church – information about church history, seasons of the church year, church practices, use of the Book of Common Prayer, our Anglican and Episcopal tradition, and the principal sacraments of our Church; Holy Baptism, and the Holy Eucharist.
Christian Living – applying Christian principles to our lives as being essential to faith.

If you would like more information on our Sunday School program, please contact Heather or Lisa, or call the church office (408-629-1836) or email.

For our teachers: Sunday School Teachers’ Page

Outreach

Santa Maria Urban Ministry (SMUM)
Founded as an outreach ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real in April, 1983, SMUM provides emergency food to the residents of San José’s inner city.
smum.org

Emergency Housing Consortium
Low-income families can receive emergency shelter, transitional housing, and other support services, and can participate in children’s programming.
ehcLifeBuilders.org

Sudanese Youth Opportunity
The orphan program is an education project under the guidance of Hope With Sudan. Beginning in 2004 and as recent as Arpil 2009, Peter rescued orphans and “at risk” children living in “war torn” villages in southern Sudan.
SudaneseYouthOpportunity.org

Hope With Sudan
Hope With Sudan brings education and medical relief to Sudanese children, youths and young adults living in exile in Kenya and Uganda, and develops projects in the Sudan.
HopeWithSudan.org

Read about additional outreach programs on our blog.