The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields is an Episcopal parish in the Diocese of Pennsylvania that is centered on the worship of God, the ministry of all baptized persons, and the call to be agents of Christ’s love in the world.
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Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
8000 St. Martin’s Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19118
215.247.7466

The Reverend Robert L. Tate, Rector

St. Martin's Cloak

The Cloak is a collection of audio vignettes—stories that reveal parishioners’ faith journeys. Share your thoughts by sending us an e-mail.

I’m the first and second grader here.

Al Good

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Al Good has been teaching first and second graders in St. Martin’s Church School for the last two years. He laughs when he realizes that most of the time he’s just a step or two ahead of the kids he teaches.

Probably one of the reasons that I took this job to be a Sunday School [teacher] was so I could understand exactly what I … what some of these things meant in the Bible that we were learning about when I go to church every Sunday. So, basically, one of the reasons you could say that I chose to become a Sunday School teacher, [was] so that I could learn. A little of that and also because I do enjoy teaching children, I thought it was a great way for me to help little kids understand it in their own little world.

A lot of it is very simplistic because I’m the first and second grader here. I’m kind of teaching myself in addition to being able to teach these little guys. And it’s very, it’s very fun teaching little children, you know, because they’re so green, they’re so green and they don’t know … they know more than you think, but it’s nice to be able to give them some groundwork that’ll help them understand exactly why we are who we are. And that’s satisfying to me.

I feel like this is a great way for me to give back to my church community. Before it was just singing in the choir and coming to church and giving them a few bucks every week. This is a little bit more and I like that.