Release time

Huh?

What's "release time."

Well, when I was a child, in my early grades in school (that would be K-3) there was a program. Every Tuesday and Thursday children were released to go to church! Can you believe that? It was called "Release Time."

There were three churches in our town -- Mt. Calvary Union Church (shown), Trinity Lutheran Church (my best school friend's dad was pastor at that church), and St. Teresa's Catholic Church.

So, who went where? All three churches participated. Our parents were given the choice. Mostly the children who attended Mt. Calvary with their parents went to release time at Mt. Calvary, those to attended the Lutheran Church attended Trinity Lutheran's program, and those who were parishioners at St. Theresa's went there. If a child was unchurch, his/her parent was given a choice for the child to participate or stay in school and do whatever kids did when most of the class was gone. Actually, I don't remember ANY child staying back in school while the rest of us went to Release Time. So, if a child did stay back, I don't imagine any stigma was attached to that child. Who cared? We were so glad to get to church twice a week -- after all it was like Sunday school -- mid-week.

What did we do? Well, we memorized Scripture, we were told Bible stories, were taught the ethics of the Bible, and we had a craft project (sometimes). I loved Release Time, and not because I was getting out of school -- I really liked going to school. I loved Release Time because it was another hour or two in church with my friends from church.

What about my best friend? Well, she, of course, went to the Lutheran Release time. I recall several times, however, when both churches (Lutheran and Mt. Calvary) combined their Release Time sessions. After all we shared the same Bible and same belief that Jesus Christ was sent by his Father, God, to save us from our sins, and that he died, was buried, and rose again for us.

Anyway, that's "Release Time." What a shame that isn't an option any more; nor is the daily Bible reading we had before saying the Lord's Prayer and then pledging allegiance to the flag.

I learned a lot of Scripture just from the daily Bible reading -- I'll cover that another time, I suppose.