St. Patrick Presbyterian Church, Epc

I watched his face light up like a Christmas tree. This was a face that had previously featured the permanent furrow of an 80 year-old accountant on the brow of a nine year-old. He was sitting, absolutely swallowed up by my bulky, brown, microsuede office couch, next to his mother, her own face fixed in the Virgin Mary's adoring-yet-quizzical "no seriously, what child is this" repose, and he had been asking some very complicated questions about the metaphysics of our faith. I was (and still am) the new pastor who had not seen this coming, but I recognized it from the mirror of my own past.In our tradition, a few times a year we invite elementary and middle schoolers who would like to make a personal profession of faith and join the church to participate in our Communicants' Class. There, they have the opportunity to (re)hear the basics of our faith and practice and to process it over several weeks along with their parents. At the end of the class, each child schedules an "interview" with a pastor, a parent, a