Sunday, May 02, 2010

Another Sunday School Adventure

Sunday school this morning was a bit of a zoo. If zoos had one uncontrollable animal and one harried and exasperated zookeeper, that is. We had a very difficult time focusing on the lesson (even more than usual) and no amount of simplification seemed to make the story of Jesus sending the seventy comprehensible. Thanks for nothing on that one, CPH.

The capper for this helter-skelter lesson came when we were working on a craft involving lots of paper, markers, and the stickers that came with the lesson. After a few minutes of quiet (quiet because the student was ignoring my questions), she gasped and held up her stickers. "Miss Bethany," she cried,"I didn't know there were girl pastors!"

Wait. What?

She brought her stickers up to me and, sure enough, on of the stickers was a female person in a cassock and surplice. She looked like a female pastor. (Again, a great big thanks to CPH.) I would guess that she was supposed to be an acolyte, but that explanation wouldn't fly since we don't have girls acolyting in our services (for more on that, see Patrick's post on the subject). Instead I told her that some churches have choirs that wear robes, so maybe she was a member of the choir. That seemed to satisfy the student, although she dismissed it as "stupid" that a girl would look like a pastor.

At last, in that moment, we were on the same page.

4 comments:

Adriane said...

Here's to hoping the big kids return to your class. Soon.

And if not, Jeni and I will owe you a drink. One. Huge. Drink.

Susan said...

Good call on the choir explanation, Bep. I wear a cassock and surplice on adult-choir Sundays. And I don't look like a pastor: no alb, no stole, no chasuble, no pectoral cross. :-)

Bethany said...

Adriane - sounds like a plan. :o) This should be comforting--it isn't just you!

Elephantschild said...

Yeppers, older illustration, recycled most likely, from the older days of CPH. Thus, the choir member in cassock and surplice.

See? All choirs should be outfitted properly instead of in graduation robes, and then mistakes like this wouldn't happen!