Jeremiah 24:7 King James Version (KJV) And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 24:7 King James Version (KJV) And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
Luke 18:16 But Jesus called them unto Him and said, “Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God.”
Here is One powerful reason Why we need to Rebuild and Revitalize the Sunday School System
The 6-year-old boy accused of shooting and seriously wounding his first-grade teacher in Virginia last winter later said, “I shot that b**** dead,” according to newly unsealed redacted search warrants.
A reading specialist was restraining the boy when officers arrived at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News on Jan. 6, according to the documents. She’d grabbed him after the classroom shooting and held him in place until police arrived.
“I did it,” the boy allegedly said as he was being restrained. “I got my mom’s gun last night.”
Police later confirmed the boy used his mother’s gun, which was purchased legally.
While the boy has not been charged, his mother, Deja Taylor, was indicted in April on charges of felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child. She was additionally charged in June with unlawfully using a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm.
She pleaded guilty on June 12 to illegally obtaining and possessing a firearm and making a false statement on a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives form to purchase the firearm. Taylor will face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison when she is sentenced in October.
Teacher Abigail Zwerner, 25, suffered gunshot wounds to her chest and hand. She needed four surgeries to recover. Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit after the shooting. In it, she accused school officials of gross negligence for allegedly ignoring multiple warnings that the boy had a gun and was in a “violent mood” on the day of the shooting.
According to the search warrant, multiple staff members, including Amy Kovac, the reading specialist who restrained the boy, heard from two students on the day of the shooting who said the 6-year-old boy had a gun in his book bag. Kovac and the administrator searched the boy’s bag while the class was at recess, but they did not find a gun.
The shooting happened after the class returned from recess. Police found a loaded 9mm handgun on the classroom floor.
During their investigation, detectives on Jan. 23 interviewed a retired Newport News elementary school teacher who had taught the accused shooter, according to the warrant. She alleged that on Sept. 27, 2021, the boy walked behind her while she was sitting, placed his arms around her neck and pulled down, “choking her to the point she could not breathe.” A teacher’s assistant forcibly removed the boy from the classroom.
The search warrant also details efforts to get school records about the boy from Child Protective Services and Newport News Public Schools.
The school district, when asked about the warrant, told CBS affiliate WTKR that Newport News Public Schools was unable to comment on the matter because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
“Unfortunately, FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, prevents schools from releasing information from a student’s education record,” the district told WTKR. “U.S. Department of Education guidance states ‘schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student’s education record.'”
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But the traditional Sunday school is in a state of terminal decline and the Anglican Church is pleading with other Christian denominations to join a last-ditch mission to save it. The church is to mount a nationwide campaign to evangelize Britain’s children after warnings that worship will be dead within a generation unless it stems the flow of children from congregations.
According to the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS), the Anglican wing specializing in youth work and evangelism, the traditional Sunday school is on the brink of extinction.
All major church leaders, including Catholic bishops and the heads of the Methodist, Baptist, and United Reformed churches, are to be approached over the coming weeks to devise a policy to draw children back into church.
First started in 1780, Sunday schools were historically the only form of education available for many and the movement is now seen as an important step on the road to universal education. By the start of the 20th century, more than half the nation’s children attended, many of them from families where churchgoing was not the norm. Even now, well-known figures such as Melvyn Bragg, Richard Wilson and Anthea Turner can point to a Sunday school background.
However, the last three decades have seen a sharp decline and today they attract just one in every 25 children. If the current trend continues, church statisticians predict that only one in a 100 will go to Sunday school in 16 years’ time.
“The reason that Sunday schools are dying is not to do with God or the Church, but that children have lots of other things to do on a Sunday. How do you decide if you’ll go to church or football practice?” He recommended that churches run after-school clubs, or week night events for children “when they are free”.
A survey of attitudes towards Sunday school among 1,000 children is being planned for next year by the statistical specialists Christian Research. Its director, Dr Peter Brierley, said: “If present trends continue then in 16 years’ time the size of congregations will have halved. The bulk of that will be the smaller numbers of those under 30.”
He blamed the demise of the Sunday school on the fact that few people under 40 now take their children to church. Ms Frank said that children no longer attend Sunday school because divorced families find it hard to attend church on a Sunday, and because adults are less willing to become Sunday school teachers. “People who would take on leadership are having to work harder, longer hours in their employment and so are less ready to take up an active role in Sunday school at the weekends.”
The new campaign hopes to persuade denominational leaders such as the Archbishop of Westminster, Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, to put children first in church life.
It also hopes to see training in Sunday school work become mandatory for trainee vicars and to see the establishment of a national grid of Sunday schools, so that churches work together rather than duplicating their efforts.
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