Holy Week, Easter and Making Curriculum Decisions 

From Sharon Pearson, Christian Formation Specialist at Church Publishing 

Holy Week and Easter

As we continue on our Lenten journey, Holy Week and Easter are on the horizon. Engage families with Stations of the Cross,  Resurrection Rolls, and a Simpler Easter. Following  Building Faith to discover more ideas for the holy times that lie ahead of us.  

Support for Making Curriculum Decisions

Now is the time to begin evaluating your programs and resources before planning for the coming program year. And that includes looking at curricular resources. Remember, published curricula is a tool for helping you fulfill your goals and objectives. Here are updated resources to help in your planning:

• A process for  evaluating curriculum 
• Steps for choosing curricular resources 
• Chart of 2011  children's curriculum 
• Chart of 2011 youth curriculum 
• Chart of 2011  young adult & adult curriculum  
• Transcript from Vital Practices Talk: "Fighting the Good Fight" ( Note: you will need to create a user name and password for this free website access)

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

The Following is from "The Good Steward" which is a publication of Church Insurance Agency. 

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. At The Church Insurance Agency Corporation, child abuse prevention is a year-round effort with a long history of providing The Episcopal Church (the "Church") with education and training regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Safeguarding God's Children: Preventing Child Sexual Abuse has become the Church's
standard for such training programs. Safeguarding's face-to-face and web-based tools help
church employees and volunteers learn about offenders and provide guidelines for keeping
churches safe. Because, as the program teaches, those who would harm children are relentless in their pursuit of opportunity. 

Those who would molest children need three things to operate: access, privacy and control. Here are a few reminders for providing a safe church environment for the children and youth in your care: 

• Don't permit employees or volunteers to take children away from the church, and make sure that all programs involve supervision by at least two adults at all times.
• Be sure that classrooms, or any rooms that are used for children's programs, have unobstructed windows, and that any unused rooms are kept locked.
• Encourage parents to stay involved in church programs. They should feel free to drop by and observe at any time.
• Develop a written policy that prohibits employees and volunteers from accessing, displaying, or possessing pornography on church property. Check computers to monitor compliance.
• Teach children age-appropriate information about their physical, emotional, and behavioral boundaries and what to do if someone tries to violate those boundaries.
• Provide sexual abuse prevention training to all employees and volunteers in your church-maintenance workers, food service employees, youth ministers, clergy and lay leadership.Training puts the power to protect in everyone's hands.
• Establish procedures for responding quickly to complaints about employee or volunteer conduct. Identify who will respond, the process to be followed, and what will be done with the results.

As National Child Abuse Prevention Month approaches, we commend your commitment to
preventing child sexual and your willingness to continue those programs to create the safest
possible church environment. 

You can sign up for The Good Steward by going to:

http://www.cpg.org/productsservices/register.cfm

Some information for this article was provided by Praesidium, Inc., a CIAC collaborator in the development of misconduct. 

We continue to plan trainings for Safeguarding God's Children!

May 14 at St. Bart's, Pewaukee

9 am - noon 

Camp Webb 2011 

Camp Webb is an outdoor ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee. Everyone who comes to Camp Webb is given the opportunity to learn more about themselves and others, to discover more about the Episcopal Church, to develop a greater spiritual awareness, and to encounter Christ through living and learning in God's creation.  Campers will learn new skills, make new friends, create lasting memories and explore who they are and who God is in their lives. 

For more about Camp Webb go to www.campwebb.org. 

Registration is now open!

Leadership Camp and Counselor-in-Training  If you are in Senior High School and would like to spend some special time at camp gaining leadership training and skills, come to Leadership Camp and/or come be a Counselor-in-Training!

Apply to be on Camp Webb Staff

Lilly Summer Discernment Institute:

Summer Internship for Undergraduates Exploring a Call to Ministry

The Rev. Shannon Kelly is the Bishop's Assistant for Christian Formation.  She is responsible for overseeing, creating and nurturing formation throughout the diocese "zero to grave."  I work in conjunction with parishes and convocations to create, sustain and promote education and formation by helping parishes with resources, coaching and trainings, by holding events that are held regionally and diocesan wide, by supporting and assisting those doing the work of formation, and by making resources available for all people.  This includes, but is not limited to children, youth and adult ministries, including Camp Webb, youth events, vacation Bible schools, adult retreats, and trainings for those in leadership positions.  She can be reached at kelly@diomil.org or 414-272-3028 x114.

Kate McKey is the Christian Formation Assistant. She works part-time with Shannon in the Christian Formation Office organizing and keeping up with the Resource Center, managing the office and assisting Shannon in planning, implementing and running various programs throughout the year. For those of you who came to camp last year, you will recognize Kate as one of our conselors. We are blessed to have her continuing to serve in the diocese. Kate is also serving part-time as the youth minister at St. Andrew's in Madison and leading the Madison Area Youth Group once a month. She can be reached at diomilformation@gmail.com or at 608-257-1533. 

The Rev. REGS Scheeler has been a deacon of this diocese of many years, serving us in many different ways.  Throughout his time, his passion and focus on formation and education for youth and their leaders has not changed.  REGS is a non-stipendiary staff person who is available to help congregations move through transition, assist them in discernment or challenge them as they move forward.  He can make visits on Sundays and some weekdays.  If you think a visit from him would be of use to you, don't hesitate to call and discover the ways in which he might help your parish.  He is also in charge of the New Beginnings weekend and is assisting with other formation events throughout the year.  He has a gift and call for cooking ministry which we try to incorporate into all he does.