What is Children’s Sabbaths?

The National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths® is a sacred weekend that unites places of worship across the nation in shared concern and action for our children. It is a multifaith call to bear witness, to celebrate, and to act on behalf of children’s lives, well-being, and futures. Across traditions, communities gather in prayer, worship, education, and justice-seeking advocacy—honoring children as divine gifts and committing to dismantle the systems that harm them.

This annual observance is more than a single service or event; it is a movement of the multitudes intentionally working together to center the voices, needs, and concerns of children. It is a collective insistence that every child deserves health, wholeness, safety, and abundant resources to thrive.

Through faith, we trust that God is with us in the struggle, calling us to create a world where children can grow up whole and free.

Rev. Dr. Prathia Hall, Freedom Faith (2019)

A Children’s Sabbaths celebration typically has four elements:

1. A service of worship or prayers during which the divine mandate to listen to, follow, nurture, and protect children calls us to act with an ecclesial urgency in responding to the needs of children today.
2. Educational programs, during which people of all ages learn more about the needs of children today and the sociopolitical structures that hinder flourishing and keep children in need; explore the depth of the sacred texts, liberative teachings, and traditions that lead us to serve and seek justice for children; and develop specific, justice-oriented active responses to help children.
3. Activities that immediately engage participants in compassionate service to help and advocate for children and with action to seek justice (such as engaging, challenging, and writing letters to elected officials).
4. Post-Sabbaths weekend follow-up actions that use the inspiration, information, resources, revival, and motivation of Children’s Sabbaths weekend to lead members and places of worship into new, thoughtful, impactful, and effective efforts to improve the lives of children in the congregation, wider community, and nation throughout the year.

Children’s Sabbaths is sponsored by Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). It honors a multifaith len, and is endorsed by hundreds of denominations and religious organizations.

Since its founding, CDF has recognized the importance of the faith community’s partnership in realizing its vision of a nation where marginalized children flourish, leaders prioritize their well-being, and communities wield the power to ensure they thrive. A nation that lets its children be the poorest citizens has, at its heart, a spiritual and ethical crisis. Thus, the faith community has an ecclesial responsibility to help transform our nation’s priorities so that we stand with and for young people who cannot vote, lobby, or are muted in ways that impact their day-to-day lives and their futures. For many years, CDF has worked to support denominations and religious organizations as they develop and maintain child advocacy campaigns.

The National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths was launched in 1992 to coalesce these efforts into a united moral witness for children that crosses all lines of geography, faith tradition, race, and ethnicity. Children’s Sabbaths observance honors a multifaith lens and is endorsed by more than 200 denominations, faith groups and communities, and religious organizations. If you are interested in having your organization become an official endorser of the National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths movement, please email our Faith Community Organizing team at faith-based@childrensdefense.org

Children’s Sabbaths weekend is a robust mix of joy and sorrow, celebration and sober commitment.

A Children’s Sabbath exudes joy. Children find enthusiasm in their roles of the day and are more conscious of the gift that they are—God’s reward. In the midst of the children-centered celebrations and expressions, parents or caregivers hug children a little tighter and speak words of affirmation. The celebration is also a time where eye-catching balloons and visual decor may adorn buildings and children’s expressive creations of art, poetry, and recordings may brighten hallways. The attention to celebrating and centering children does not end there. The time might also include child-friendly snacks as a replacement of the usual after-service fare. It is a day that children and families look forward to, and those without children at their side can also appreciate the extra energy and excitement that brings memories of child-like joy.

While it is a time of celebration, a Children’s Sabbath is also sobering. The carefully curated worship services and activities deepen our understanding of the disparities facing millions of children in our country and the injustices that some faith spaces have left unchallenged.

Part of the work is acknowledging that we have not consistently responded faithfully and lovingly to all children in our communities.

It is painful and disheartening to think about children without access to health care, food, or housing, children who don’t feel safe, seen, and heard at home, at school, or in their community. A Children’s Sabbath can be an eye-opening experience. It can expose the myriad of injustices and disparities our children face daily. When done properly, a Children’s Sabbath will lift up new ways to support and advocate for children and families. It will inspire and motivate people to respond purposefully, with intentionality, and get involved.

Children’s Sabbaths is an annual event.

The National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths weekend is designated each year for the third weekend of October. However, if that weekend does not work for your place of worship, choose one that does.

Children’s Sabbaths is flexible.

We encourage you to be committed and intentional in creating a Children’s Sabbath experience that amplifies the voices, needs, concerns, and lived experiences of children.

For places of worship participating for the first time, you can ease into this moment without feeling overwhelmed or unready. We have curated and created plenty of resources for you to use or modify. For  returning participants, build on what you’ve done in past years; this is a moment for you to be even more creative and intentional in your observance. What is most important is that you shine a light on the issues affecting children and that you create intentional space and time to center the voices, needs, and concerns of the children in your worshiping community and wider community. Because Children’s Sabbaths takes place each fall, children can look forward to it each year. You have an incredible opportunity to create an experience that consistently centers their voices in the places and communities where they worship. This is your moment to work collaboratively as a community that cares about children and is committed to nurturing and protecting them.

Children’s Sabbaths is trauma informed.

A trauma-informed approach is an invitation to consider the psychosocial needs of individuals, groups, and systems; inviting and challenging individuals, groups, and systems to embody values concerned with safety, freedom, wholeness, and wellness. The process of implementing trauma-informed practices and care is recommended to occur with intentionality. Implementing trauma-informed practices and care should not be conducted in haste but with an intentional pace and informed practice.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates a framework for exercising a trauma-informed approach across six elements:

1. Safety
2. Trustworthiness and Transparency
3. Peer Support
4. Collaboration and mutuality
5. Empowerment, Voice, and Choice
6. Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues

Children’s Sabbaths is a mirror and a mandate. It celebrates the gifts of children and confronts the injustices they face. It draws faith communities deeper into their responsibility to protect and nurture. And it beckons us into year-round commitment—to become, together, the Beloved Community where every child can flourish.

Children’s Sabbaths is womanist.

Rooted in the audacity and wisdom of Black women, womanism insists on survival and flourishing for all, especially children. It unmutes silenced voices, dismantles barriers, and asks with urgency: Whose voices are missing? What must change so every child can thrive?

Past Sabbaths