Back to School Blessing

“That was the best worship service I’ve ever been to,” my 10-year-old daughter told me on the way home from church on September 14. I asked her why. “There was something for me to do through the whole service,” she replied.

That day we had held an intergenerational “Back to School Blessing” brunch and worship service at our church, Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York. It was a special service that my family and I will never forget.

By Melanie Tuxbury

“That was the best worship service I’ve ever been to,” my 10-year-old daughter told me on the way home from church on September 14. I asked her why. “There was something for me to do through the whole service,” she replied.

That day we had held an intergenerational “Back to School Blessing” brunch and worship service at our church, Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York. It was a special service that my family and I will never forget.

In preparation for the “Back to School Blessing” worship service, Theresa Lasselle, our Sunday school superintendent, made invitations that we gave to the church’s school-aged children and youth. We encouraged them to invite their school teachers to attend the service.

Pastor Bob Luidens, music minister Diane Kingsland, and I planned the worship service with the intention of providing intergenerational, meaningful, and hands-on worship moments throughout the service. We incorporated experiences for all of the senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Instead of worshiping in the sanctuary, the congregation was seated around tables in the Fellowship Hall, which had been decorated by volunteers.

As the congregation came into the Fellowship Hall that Sunday, people were greeted by the scent of spiced candles and the sight of beautiful tables. Each table was decorated in fall colors with a candle, a bowl filled with water, a natural confetti of acorns and maple seeds, and paper leaves.

Worship began with the congregation enjoying a potluck brunch together.

We continued by lighting the candles on each table. Next, people at each table touched the water in the bowl, a symbol of God’s grace and love. We shared our prayers of joy and concern, and we sprinkled acorns and maple seeds on the water as a symbol of offering those prayers to the grace and love of God. Parents blessed their children, and children blessed their parents. (Parishioner Deb Ritzko shared with me later, “I loved seeing a college student bless his parents.”) We also sang hymns and enjoyed the music of our chancel choir.

Teachers then gathered at the worship center, and the congregation blessed them. Pastor Bob Luidens says, “It was a profoundly moving experience to be part of the blessing of the teachers. It was very apparent that all of the teachers were touched by the prayerful, joyful support that they received. This service offered them meaningful affirmation and encouragement, both from their neighbors and from God.”

To conclude the worship service, each person made a prayerful commitment of how he or she would be a blessing to others. We wrote our commitments on paper leaves. The children collected the leaves and hung them on a tree of blessings. That tree of blessings remains in the Fellowship Hall as a reminder of those commitments and of our worship service.

Melanie Tuxbury is associate for youth and intergenerational ministries at Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York.