"Educate a Child" Resources for Study and Reflection
General Assembly Social Witness Policy
A Vision for children and the church
"A Vision for Children and the Church" was adopted by the 205th General Assembly (1993) as a response to a concern for the need for a systematic approach to ministering with and for children.
loving our neighbors: equity and quality in public Education
"Loving Our Neighbors", adopted by the 219th General Assembly (2010), is the PC(USA)'s most recent comprehensive policy on public education. It was prepared for the Assembly by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP). It discusses the challenges to public education posed by growing economic divisions and new demographic realities in our society.
Relevant Articles
Hope in a Child
A call this Advent to educate and care for the vulnerable children of the world
by Rev. Alonzo Johnson
Advent shows that we put our faith in a baby born in struggle and fragility. But there’s good news: the most famous vulnerable child in history becomes the master teacher. Jesus’ story, like Mark’s, beckons us to see the potential of the image of God in all of our young people. As Presbyterians, we heed the corresponding call to the work of education. Continue Reading
Into the Words…Recalling our Heritage Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner
The Domestic Expression of Educate a Child, Transform the World
“The urgency of this work is told in the rates of infant mortality and teenage suicide, in lives doomed from their outset to despair and desperation, and in the squandering of God’s gracious gift of intelligence and imagination – the defiling of the sacred imago Dei.” Read Article
Our Theology of Public Education, Rev. Dr. Raymond Roberts
“As we consider the continuing challenges to American public schooling, we do well to retrieve this covenantal understanding that education is a common good.” Read Article
The Cradle to Prison Pipeline Marian Wright Edelman
AMerica's New Apartheid
“Christians who profess to believe that God entered human history as a poor vulnerable baby, and that each man, woman, and child is created in God’s own image need to act on that faith.” Read Article
PRESBYTERIAN MISSION AGENCY BOARD BRIEFED ON EDUCATE A CHILD INITIATIVE, PRESBYTERIAN NEWS SERVICE
U.S. component of the campaign launches at board meeting and in Washington, D.C. this week.
PRESBYTERIANS SHARE IDEAS AND VISION FOR EDUCATING CHILDREN, PRESBYTERIAN NEWS SERVICE
Big Tent Workshop focuses on National Educate a Child Initiative.
Read statistics about the status of children from the Decade of the Child.
Books for Further Reading
Thus Far On the Way: Toward a Theology of Child Advocacy
By Eileen Lindner
This book of sermons by Rev. Dr. Eileen Linder, adapted from sermons delivered at the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy at the Children's Defense Fund's Haley Farm, addresses the key issues of child advocacy and education in a way that is both humorous and heartfelt.
Welcoming Children: a Practical Theology of Childhood
By Joyce Ann Mercer
In this book the author examines the theological meaning of childhood. She explores how the church can best affirm and celebrate children as well as the practices that support and nurture children. Order from Chalice Press.
Rethinking Childhood
edited by Peter B. Pufall and Richard P. Unsworth
Against a backdrop of poverty and the dehumanizing environment of a consumer culture, children are often patronized or idealized by adults. Here 20 contributors from a variety of disciplines provide a multidisciplinary view of childhood in which children have both voice and agency. Includes a chapter by Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, Presbyterian minister and deputy general secretary for research and planning at the National Council of Churches of Christ. Order from Rutgers University Press.
Our Day to End Poverty: 24 Ways You Can Make a Difference
Consider using this study guide with the book Our Day to End Poverty: 24 Ways You Can Make a Difference, by Shannon Daley-Harris and Jeffrey Keenan. The book offers scores of practical actions anyone can take to fight poverty.
The study guide, for use with small groups of adults in congregations, provides additional suggestions that connect with work being done by many ministries of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to end poverty. Written by Shannon Daley Harris, an ordained Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and creator of the National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths and the Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry for Children’s Defense Fund; and Carol Wehrheim ,writer, editor and consultant in Christian education and 2001 APCE Educator of the Year, the seven-session study provides groups with worship, learning activities, and ways to respond based on the book.
