Coda

Children’s Sabbaths is not just a weekend observance. It is a living movement, rooted in prayer and sustained by justice, calling us to embody love for every child every day of the year. As we close this year’s observance, let us remember that our worship, our advocacy, and our commitments ripple outward—shaping schools, neighborhoods, laws, and futures.

Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) President and CEO Rev.Dr. Starsky Wilson, in his 2025 Beloved Community: A Vision for Child Advocacy speech, charged us with this reminder:

“We are reminded of the responsibility and obligation we hold to create this nurturing environment, where children not only survive but flourish. As a community, it is our duty to ensure that each child has access to nourishing meals, health care for both body and mind, and the freedom to live joyfully and securely. We must cherish and protect our sanctuaries—spaces where harm has stopped, places held in God’s bosom. As prophetic leaders on The Farm, may we locate our interpretation so that our Divine inspirations may fuel the imagination of our children, of the kids, young and old…”

And so we close this year’s call with Dr. Wilson’s mandate: to take what has been sown in prayer and worship, and translate it into sustained action.

What Comes Next

• Invite your congregation, small group, or faith community to commit to at least one action that will continue beyond the weekend—whether that’s sending letters or supporting child-centered ministries locally.
• Share stories, photos, testimonies, and prayers from your observance with the hashtag #ChildrensSabbaths2025. Your voice strengthens the national chorus for justice.
• Keep walking with Children’s Defense Fund and local partners throughout the year. Sign up for updates, participate in campaigns, connect with a Children’s Defense Fund state or regional office, and join advocacy efforts that ensure every child can thrive. 

Coda

Children’s Sabbaths may close, but the call does not end. What was prayed in whispers, spoken in sermons, sung in song, and carried in children’s laughter now becomes seed. Every prayer offered, every child lifted by name, every candle burning with hope is planted in the soil of justice.

Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson reminds us: “We must cherish and protect our sanctuaries—spaces where harm has stopped, places held in God’s bosom.” These sanctuaries are found within and outside our faith communities, as well as beyond them. Inside, they are the churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples where children are welcomed, safe, and affirmed. Outside, they are classrooms where children learn without fear, homes where families are nourished and secure, parks where children play freely, courtrooms where fairness prevails, and streets where young people walk in safety.

Our charge is to create sanctuary everywhere—not only within walls of worship but in the everyday spaces where children live and grow. Sanctuary is wherever harm has ceased and life can flourish, wherever God’s bosom is made known in justice and care.

We are entrusted to water these seeds—with courage in the face of despair, with faith in the midst of struggle, with action that matches our love. Let us tend them in our homes, nurture them in our congregations, scatter them in our communities, and root them in our nation.

Until the day comes when every child can grow strong and free, play without fear, learn without hunger, rest without worry, and flourish in joy, in safety, and in love—this is the work we carry forward. This is the call that continues.