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Aug 26, 2013 | Pat McCaughan

ENS: Back 2 School - Blessing Backpacks, Blessing Lives

[Episcopal News Service] Kids of all ages are enjoying a seasonal rite of passage – the blessing of the backpacks – and even getting a little help from their local Episcopal churches to go back to school.

 

For Jalen Henderson, 12, a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church near downtown San Diego, attending the congregation’s second annual “Back 2 School Bash” on Aug. 17 meant receiving new paper, pencils, calculator and other school supplies, and socks, shoes, a haircut, photo, lunch and games.

 

“Thank you for giving me my backpack and other supplies,” Henderson wrote appreciatively during one of his last stops of the day – a crafts and activities table in the parish hall. “I think sixth grade will be very fantastic.”

 

Mu Aye, a Karen refugee living in San Diego, also penned her gratitude: “I really love my backpack and I got everything I need. Without you, we would have to take a lot of money out of our pockets. I see everyone’s happy including me,” according to the community college student.

 

At All Saints Church in River Ridge, Louisiana, Robin Peters, 55, admitted to being one of the “taller” kids and to feeling multiple blessings as the Rev. Jay Angerer prayed Aug. 18 for students, teachers, parents, the school year and backpacks.

 

“I needed some blessings,” said Peters, a kindergarten teacher who also attends education courses at Tulane University and who also has an adult daughter in college.

 

The blessings, along with an “Undie Sunday” underwear giveaway and an ice cream social, combined to make it “sacred and sweet and funny and fun” for Peters to lug her black, lime green and neon-colored polka dot backpack to the altar rail along with about eight others.

 

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