The Nursery is for infants up to age three.  Care is provided every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. during the program year and from 10:15 a.m; to 11:45 a.m. during the summer.  Nursery care is also provided for special services, such as the Christmas Eve service. 

Our nursery is attended on Sunday mornings by one staff person, Amy Alvut, and a volunteer from the congregation.  Amy is an elementary school teacher in the Chapel Hill- Carrboro school system and has many years of experience working with children.

Jennifer Morgan is our nursery volunteer coordinator.  She manages the volunteer schedule and also ensures, with the help of other parents, that the nursery is clean, safe and welcoming.

Please feel free to contact Jennifer Morgan (338-1019, craft@email.unc.edu) or Lisa Frost-Phillips, the Assistant to the Rector (732-9308, lisa@stmatthewshillsborough.org) if you have any concerns or questions.

The church nursery supplies some diapers, baby wipes, simple snacks such as "goldfish", juice, toys, books, crayons, etc. There is also a bathroom equipped with a baby changing table and a toddler-sized potty.

When You Arrive At the Nursery ...

Please add your child's name, age, and special needs to the white board.  Please leave a diaper bag (ideally with the child's name on it) and  point it out to the Nursery Staff or a volunteer.  Advise Nursery Staff whether or not your child needs a bottle and discuss any special needs  your child may have.  The Nursery, Staff will give you a pager and write down the unit's number next to your child's name on the white board.  This allows us to contact you during the service if needed.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
For newcomers, adjusting to the Nursery program can be challenging. Separation anxiety peaks around 15 months of age.  1f your child is  anxious, feel welcome to stay in the Nursery the first couple of times, allowing your child to feel more comfortable with the new environment. 
When you are comfortable leaving your child, pagers are used to reach you discreetiy during the service if necessary.

Nursery Care After You Leave Your Child With Us ...

We will interact with your child as much as possible to ensure his/her happiness!  If there are both babies and toddlers in the nursery at the same time, they may be separated into smaller playgroups. Toddlers often play in the playground area outside or across the hall with adult   supervision.  Snacks such as "goldfish" crackers and juice are available.  If prolonged crying occurs, the Nursery Staff will find (or page) you in the church. Don't forget to return the pager
when you pick up your child!

At baptism, we pray that the newly baptized will be given, “An inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.”  (BCP, p.308) This describes well what we hope to impart to our youth through our programs of Christian education and formation.  Through worship, teaching and fellowship, we hope they will be nurtured in the faith and rooted in the love and care of our community.

 Our youth Sunday school and fellowship programs are grounded in worship.  They gather in the teen room on Sunday mornings for discussion of the appointed Sunday bible readings.  They incorporate contemplative worship practices into these discussions, beginning and ending with prayer and silence.  Following Sunday school, many youth sit together in the balcony for worship.  In addition, youth group, offered on the 1^st and 3^rd Sunday evenings of the month, incorporates fellowship, music and worship into its programs.  Youth also play a vital role in worship serving as acolytes for our services.

 Please feel free to contact Hannah Jacobs, Coordinator of Youth Ministries (619-8107), or Lisa Frost-Phillips, Assistant to the Rector (732-9308), if you have questions about our programs.  We’re glad you’re here and hope you’ll find St. Matthew’s to be a place of worship, sustenance and welcome for your family.

Youth Council:  The Youth Council is a select group of 7th-12th graders who plan all Sunday evening Youth Groups and service projects for the church calendar year, with facilitation from the Coordinator of Youth Ministries.

Hannah Jacobs and Lisa Frost-Phillips will be offering a confirmation class for high school students beginning in January 2012. Students will be confirmed in April or May 2012.



Upcoming Events:

*Youth Sunday School meets every Sunday at 9:15 a.m. in the Youth Room. See the events below for special activities happening during Sunday School.
**Youth Group meets every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month at 5:00 p.m. in the Youth Room. See the events below for upcoming topics and special activities!
***Youth Ministries will be offering Confirmation Classes this Spring for all high schoolers interested in affirming their faith. See Hannah or Lisa for more information.

Friday, January 20th-Saturday, January 21st - 196th Annual Convention
Sunday, January 29th 12:00-2:00PM - Confirmation Class
Sunday, February 5th   5:00-8:30PM - Youth Group & Super Bowl Party
Sunday, February 11th 1:00-5:00PM - Acolyte Refresher & Bowling
Sunday, February 12th 12:00-2:00PM - Confirmation Class
Sunday, February 19th 12:00-4:00PM - Youth Group: Field Trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art
Sunday, February 26th 12:00-2:00PM - Confirmation Class
Sunday, March 4th 5:00-9:00PM - Spaghetti Dinner
Friday, March 9th - Sunday, March 11th - Confirmation Class: Diocesan Outreach Weekend
Thursday, March 29th 5:00-6:30PM - Food For All
Thursday, April 5th 6:30-8:00PM - Confirmation Class
Saturday, April 28th - Sunday, April 29th - Youth Service Lock-In
Sunday, May 20th 10:30AM - Youth Service
Sunday, May 20th 5:00-7:30PM - Youth Group Party

Many of the pictures above were taken by Laura Branan.

The Adult Forum meets in the Fellowship Hall and offers topics for discussion ranging from ancient history to current events. 



At the Adult Forum in November

Adult Forum: 9:15 Sunday mornings in the Fellowship Hall

· November 6: Pill Packing: In support of Maureen Cunningham’s involvement with an annual medical mission to Honduras on January 7–15, 2012 folks attending the Adult Form will be supervised in packing 30,000 vitamins into baggies for individual use while hearing about the mission. 

· November 13:“Restorative Justice”: Richard Hoey-Bey, our current reentry partner, is scheduled for release on November 7.  On November 13 Richard will make a presentation at the Adult Forum on the subject of “Restorative Justice.”  His description follows:

Twenty-one years ago I was directly responsible for a man losing his life.

As I’ve matured, so has my remorse and shame.  Making amends is uppermost in my mind and the parameters of Restorative Justice render me this pertinent opportunity.

My perception of self is clear for I am a complex of regret and promise.  I have no answers, mostly questions, and a simple desire to be a part of a better tomorrow.

I feel that I have to restore justice with the victim’s family first, though.  However, I am nervous about how to approach them.  Saying “I’m sorry” seems categorically insulting.  In my way of thinking “I’m sorry” is only appropriate when it accompanies the return of what’s been taken, and I can’t return that son to his parents, that brother to his siblings, that father to his children, that man to his community, co-workers, religious family; nor can I restore his lost contributions to humanity.

Restorative Justice, I know, is bigger than my issue for it expands to include community as well as Mother Nature, and I’d relish the opportunity to explore these aspects with St. Matthew’s congregation.  Doing so at an Adult Forum will provide me with the useful advice I so desperately need as well as the opportunity to advance the necessity for Restorative Justice with intelligent dialogue.

God willing, I will see you on November 13^th.

Peace and blessings, Richard Hoey-Bey

· November 20: Advent Crafting:  Children and adults alike are invited to come and create an Advent-themed craft that will help mark the season which begins the following Sunday.  Materials and instruction will be provided.  This is offered as part of  Children’s Ministries’ focus on “Bringing Home the Faith,” providing devotional ways to practice our faith at home as well as at church.  All are welcome.  *Please note:  Parents will bring children to the Choir Room at 9:15 for music, and children will come to the Fellowship Hall at 9:30. 

· November 27: Sunday Advent Series “Expanding Muslim Christian Futures” begins:   Just over a decade ago, I was speaking at a Methodist church with a Duke colleague who also happened to be a Muslim imam. It was the immediate aftermath of 9/11. We struggled to make sense of its horror, and what might lie ahead for people of faith, whether American or Arab, African or Asian.  A member of the audience later sent me a book: More in Common than You Think - The Bridge between Islam and Christianity.   That title remains both a goal and a challenge. This year, 2011, we have the first Sunday of Advent and the first day of the Muslim New Year (1 Muharram 1433 AH) occurring on the same day. To mark that commonality, and to explore what lies ahead in our collective future, we are going to dedicate the Advent season education hour at St. Matthew's to Muslim and Christian bridge building.

On the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, we will welcome the Muslim Imam of Duke University, Abdullah Antepli. He will share with us his experiences of the diverse, often disparate voices, within Islam, and between Muslims and Christians, at Duke and elsewhere. Imam Abdullah is Turkish, but he has lived and traveled throughout Asia, and he also studied to be an imam at the Hartford Seminary Foundation in Connecticut.  

The Second Sunday of Advent, December 4, we will welcome another Muslim Imam, Professor Ebrahim Moosa, Department of Religion, Duke University. It was Professor Moosa who shared the spotlight with me when we talked to that Methodist gathering after 9/11 over one decade ago. He has had numerous experiences in Muslim-Christian reflection, both as a South African imam during the Apartheid struggle and also as the member of a Christian-Muslim study group co-chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Emir of Qatar.

The Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, I will have just returned from overseas. I will engage a set of issues that concern progressive Muslims in the UK, sharing with St. Matthew's parishioners the experience of a weekend seminar at Sarum College, Salisbury UK dedicated to the theme of Muslim cosmopolitanism.(I will also have had the recent experience of worshiping in the glorious Salisbury Cathedral.)

The Fourth Sunday of Advent , December 18, there will be a collective engagement with Eliza Griswold’s book, The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from The Faultline between Christianity and Islam, the best- selling book by the daughter of the former Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold, herself a prizewinning poet and well traveled journalist. St. Matthews' parishioners are encouraged to read her book throughout Advent 2011, and we will make direct reference to her arguments and recommendations in this final session of what looks to be another high water mark of spiritual-intellectual engagement at our neighborhood parish church.                 

 --The Reverend Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence

The St. Matthew’s Bible Study group welcomes everyone to participate in learning more about the books of the Bible. The group meets each Sunday morning at 9:15 in the Cooke-Lawrence Room of the Ruffin House. Led by Jack Troxell and Charles Thomas, who are NON-scholars, the group urges everyone to participate in an open discussion of the book under study. Through the use of historical and archaeological sources as well as various translations of the Bible and interpretations and commentaries from real Bible scholars the class aim is to gain a better understanding of what the book said to the ancient Hebrews, to 1st Century Christians, and to us today. There are no “experts” in the class.  Each member brings his or her own personal interpretation/understanding to help all gain more insight into God's word for us. Open, honest discussion by all is encouraged. The class is open to attend at will for one Sunday or more.  Missed classes don’t affect your understanding of the materials. It is designed to be fun as well as informative.