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Category: Prayer

This Advent I Will Take Time To…

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Fifty sheets of card cut into A5, 5 minutes on photoshop and £3 for the magnet from eBay.  And of course my handy pack of felt tips from Bargain Madness.

Fridge magnet prayers.  “This advent I will take time to…”

We spend so much time running around being human doings instead of human beings.  This advent we’ve made decisions about how we are going to deepen our relationship with God and with our friends and family.  It’s going up on the fridge at eye height to remind us to drink more tea, to pray more, to laugh more… or whatever we decided as we were praying this morning.

Labyrinth

Next month’s Rock Mass is “Rock Mass Unplugged” in the park with a BBQ.  Jonnie Parkin from Luminous has helped us out by cutting a labyrinth into the church park.

Prayer Baubles | All Age Worship Idea

I’m in the midst of running numerous Messy Christingle afternoons for our local school.  I was thinking of ideas to engage slightly older children (Years 5 and 6) so went to my happy place – The Range (UK shop).  I came across these empty baubles (£1.99 for 6) which gave rise to this…

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I cut a few sheets of red and green paper into strips.  I asked the children what they were most looking forward to for Christmas.  All sorts of different answers came but the first was “spending time with my family” and the second was “giving presents”.  OK, I admit that these were total gifts as answers but we also talked about sprouts along the way as well.

On one side of the paper we wrote a prayer for our family or friends.  I showed them mine – “Lord I pray for my mum” and explained that she wasn’t very well and that was why I wanted to pray for her.

On the other side we were “inspired by your answer that you look forward to giving” and wrote a prayer for people who are in need at Christmas.

Then we rolled them up and put them inside the bauble.

Then we added two pinches of glitter (that bag of shiny cuttings that cost a measly £1 from The Range).

Add a piece of thread and voilà!

Advent 10 - Holy

Prayer baubles that we can shake during the worship as a prayer.  Then you can take it home and hang it on your tree!

 

 

Being the Person You Want Around You

Today, I’m in the middle of leading group sessions as part of the Year 7 retreat programme in a large Church of England secondary school. The children and youth department from WYAD hand me the activity and then it evolves as the day proceeds.

With groups of ten pupils we started exploring the changes in the friends we now that we have moved to a much larger secondary school. How do we make new friends in a bigger context?  With a flip chart on the table we “brainstormed” (he’s said it now!) what qualities we look for in a friend, a best friend, a bestie, a bezel.

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Using balsa wood people from Baker Ross we then went from the archetype (yes we learned a key word) to our own individual desires by writing the qualities we are looking.

For a plenary (see, I was a teacher don’t you know) we looked at our person and assessed the qualities we were looking for.  Then I asked the pupils if they were able to step up to the challenge and be those people they wanted to have as friends.  “Can we be those people for others”?  Can we be the “honest, caring, kind, funny… ” people we are looking for in the world.

The whole theme of the retreat was “The Light of the World” and this was one of many activities during the day.  Later, when we returned together as the larger group we prayed together.  I invited the pupils to pull out the wooden dudes they had decorated and think about what they had written.  We prayed together that we may become those people who are a light in the world.  We prayed that we would develop those good qualities we were looking for in others.  We prayed that we would go and be the light of the world.

And then I blessed them.

The children and youth department at WYAD are great with resourcing parishes.  They could do with an online presence where you can download resources they make available.