LETTER: Welcome back to Congregational Church Sunday school

September 12, 2025

Waterbury Congregational Church. File photo by Megan Schneider

To the Community: 

The Waterbury Congregational Church School has some exciting plans for the upcoming year and we want to let the community know about them. 

We have been on recess for the month of August, so this Sunday, Sept. 14, will be Welcome Back Sunday, with the return of both the choir and church school. 

We start every service all together, and then, after Rev. Peter Plagge shares a story, kids in first grade and older head to the classroom with their teacher. We also have a nursery which is open and staffed for those who are younger than first grade. While most of the church school children are elementary-school aged, we also welcome the contributions of older youth.

This year, our church school will be following a Leonardo da Vinci-inspired unit. We are calling it “Wonderfully Made: Discovering God’s World with Leonardo.” Here is a description from the unit overview:

This unit invites children to explore the world through the eyes of Leonardo da Vinci—artist, inventor, scientist, and seeker. Each lesson blends biblical themes with inquiry-based learning, encouraging kids to experience the sacred in curiosity, creativity, and questions. Children will be invited to wonder about the world and their place in it while being affirmed that questioning is not only allowed, but holy.

As you can see, this unit will allow us to investigate some exciting themes such as wonder, truth, faith, etc. Older youth will be following the main unit and also leaning into challenging orthodoxy in a way that is developmentally appropriate and true to our progressive values. We will also tap into the talents of community members who are artists and scientists and learn how they connect their work to these themes. 

As is our tradition, kids will spend the year investigating and creating. This year, we hope to have an end-of-the-year gallery to show their imaginings. We will take a break from our Leonardo unit for the Advent/Christmas season. We will celebrate with a few of our traditions, including a multi-generational Advent craft activity and a St. Lucia observance. More information will follow about each of these events.

If you have been looking for a progressive Christian church that is welcoming and affirming to all and encourages its youth to explore the world in order to make it better, then join us and see if it’s a good fit for you. 

From our website: Belief in God is really what brings us all here. We don’t expect one another to think the same thing when we say the word “God,” but we do believe God is something which is bigger, which is mysterious/magical, and which is universal, and we believe that with this God, life is richer, more complete, and creative.

Lori Morse, Duxbury

Director of Christian Education

Waterbury Congregational Church