ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how faith institutions and communities are responding to the contemporary early learning agenda, both in terms of how this articulates with their traditional mission and what changes it may be bringing to the ways in which churches network with communities. Churches serve two communities, the congregation of the faithful and the wider community within which the faithful live and work. Under neoliberal governments in some countries, mainstream religious organizations have been repositioned as partners in the provision of social services. The Blue Sky Club took the church’s educational mission into the community with the aim of changing the lives of young children from impoverished families living in the so-called ‘welfare motels’ strung along the nearby interstate highway. Playgroup activities followed a routine which began with free play for children while the mothers watched and chatted, followed by ‘craft time’, ‘snack time’, and ‘song time’.
