"On

my honor I will do my best, to do my duty to God and

country..."

The first

two lines of the Boy Scout oath will be played out across

the county this Sunday, as uniformed scouts from Tiger

level through Eagle gather to worship together in their

respective churches.

"Duty

to God is something we have stood by for 90 years and

it's still important," said Mike Reese, district

executive for the Boy Scouts, Flint River Council.

"Duty to God is part of our basic oath, and we show

this through attendance at church on Scout Sunday,"

Reese added.

Duty to God

is defined for scouts in their handbook as follows:

"Your family and religious leaders teach you to know

and love God, and the ways in which God can be served. As

a Scout, you do your duty to God by following the wisdom

of those teachings in your daily life, and by respecting

the rights of others to have their own religious

beliefs."

Scout

Sunday is traditionally celebrated in February,

Scouting's anniversary month. Boy Scout Troop 209, which

is chartered by St. Andrew's-in-the-Pines Episcopal

Church in Peachtree City, will worship together and serve

up a pancake breakfast for church members, scouts and

their families.

Down the

road at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, approximately 35

scouts will attend Mass and be awarded their religious

emblems, specifically the Light of Christ and Parvuli

Dei. Activities such as helping wheel residents from

Southland Nursing Home in Peachtree City to Sunday

services, or hosting a seniors bingo game, fulfilled one

of the boys' service requirements.

But the

actual acts of volunteerism go beyond doing a good turn.

"It's not so much about what the boys are doing, but

how they felt doing it," noted Eileen Lavoie, a

scout leader and coordinator for scouts earning the

Catholic emblems. Her son, Andrew, a scout in Troop 181,

succeeded in earning the Pius XII emblem, which is the

highest level of Catholic award available to scouts.

The

spiritual ideals of scouting have always been an integral

part of the program. More than half of all scouting units

are chartered or supported by churches. From allowing

units to use facilities to enlisting the help of

ministers and priests to assist in teaching scouts about

the tenets of their faith, scouts depend on their local

congregations.

All major

churches and religious bodies offer a program for scouts

to enrich and understand their faith. At the beginning

levels of scouting, boys learn about their God by talking

with their parents and religious leaders. The

requirements grow with the age of the scout.

"The

requirements are right on target for the level of the

boy," said scout leader Maria Berger of Pack 279.

From the

cross depicted on emblems for Catholic and Protestant

scouts to the Talmud inscribed on the emblem for Jewish

scouts, boys across the nation are united in their duty

to God.