Summer 2008
 |
|
Children's Liturgy, Sunday July 6th 2008
Noah's
Ark |
| Today, we began our Summer project, Noah's Ark. |
|
| We
listened to Noah's story. We find the story of Noah in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 6. It is one of several stories in the Bible which show how people worry about evil in the world. By telling this story, the Israelites explained how they thought God would want to wipe out bad things every so often. One person who was pleasing to God would then be asked to carry on in a new way. In the story, Noah was someone who believed in God and co-operated with God to save the world. He did as God asked him, building the Ark, which is a large boat, even though it may have seemed a silly thing to do before the water came. He was told to take his familyaboard the boat he had made, along with pairs of every living creature, so that when the flood waters finally disappeared, all life could begin again in a world which would be as God wanted it to be. |
 |
 |
 |
| In
the New Testament, we realise that Jesus is the person who really does
come from God to make it possible for everyone to be with God in the way
God wants. The Ark story has shown how much people longed in their hearts for his coming, even before they knew he would come. In our hearts, we all feel uneasy about bad things in the world- but we know Jesus came to make all things new between us and God. |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday July 13th 2008.
Sunday
July 13th 2008 |
|
Today in our liturgy, we have talked about the story of Noah. In this
story, in the book of Genesis, Chapter 6 in our Bible, the Israelites picture that God was sad and angry that the people God had made had become unkind and nasty. The Israelites worried that the world seemed to be full of bad things and people, so they thought that every so often, God would want to choose someone good to start life on the earth again. |
|
| We made giraffes and lions to remind us that in the story, God told Noah to take pairs of all living creatures on to the Ark, before the great flood came. |
 |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday July 20th 2008.
Sunday
July 20th 2008 |
|
Today we put the birds, flying over a rainbow, on to our Noah's Ark. |
|
| The
story of Noah is one of several stories in the Bible which show how people
have always worried about evil in the world. In Noah's story, the Israelites explain how they thought God wiped out bad things every so often. In today's Gospel ( Matthew13: 24-43 ), Jesus tells a story in which people are still worried and the bad things people are worried about are seen as weeds which grow among the good crop. People want to know if they should try to pull up the weeds. Jesus says not to worry, only God knows what is really a weed and God will sort it out when God is ready. Then Jesus tells several stories to show the power of the kingdom of heaven. Like yeast in a huge mass of dough, the kingdom can change the whole world. Only a very small amount of yeast would make a large lump of dough rise- so a small amount of goodness or kindness can bring about huge changes amongst people. |
 |
| The
yeast is put into a large mass of dough in the story- the woman does not
divide the dough into smaller amounts. This tells us that Jesus wants
us to know the kingdom of God is meant for the whole world. We do not
hear about God and then separate ourselves off from others who have not
heard. This ( and making birds ) reminded us of the way Saint Francis was said to have sent the birds to which he preached to all corners of the earth- North and South, West and East. This makes a cross! He reminded the birds that God had saved them on Noah's Ark. We made a Saint Francis cross, covered with birds. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy Sunday July 27th 2008.
Sunday
July 27th 2008 |
|
| We thank God for all the creatures of the sea. We have added them to our Ark today. |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy Sunday August 3rd 2008
Sunday
August 3rd 2008 |
| We have come to the end of our Summer project-
the last group of animals we are saving on our Ark are our pets. |
|
| Dear
God, May I help my dog grow in dogginess; may my dog help me to grow in humanity. Amen |
 |
| Dear
God, Thank you for my cat. Stroking him and hearing him purr always makes me happier, when I'm feeling stressed or sad. Amen. |
 |
God of
rabbits, Amen
|
Children's Liturgy, Sunday August 10th 2008
Sunday
August 10th 2008 |
|
In today's Gospel (Matthew 14: 22-33), Jesus tells the disciples to get
into a boat without him. The weather becomes bad and they are afraid.
He comes to them, walking on the water, but they are unsure if he is a
ghost. When they cry out, Jesus tells them not to be frightened. At this,
Peter asks Jesus to call him to him, saying he, Peter, will walk on the
water, too. He begins, but loses his nerve and begins to sink. Jesus saves him and they both enter the boat. The wind drops. The disciples are amazed, saying surely, Jesus is the son of God. Jesus asks Peter why he doubted. |
|
| Two
children, Tsitsi and Mwaita, acted out how dogs are trained. They showed
the commands for sit, stay, stand and come, using a 'clicker' to reward
the 'dog' as it obeyed. They were brave enough to give a demonstration
back in church. Do you think this was like walking on water? Most of us
would have been too afraid to take this chance! Well-trained dogs do as they are told. They always recognise their owners and do the same thing when the command is the same. God gives us freedom to have faith and follow Jesus' teaching- or not. Peter wanted to show his faith by walking on water like Jesus. If we had enough faith, we would be able to act for God- but sometimes we don't. The important thing is to keep on trying and to ask God for help. Peter was a trier. Hurray! The older children thought about how we are different from trained animals. What does it mean to have freedom, to grow frightened and to have doubts?How does freedom make us feel about God? How do we grow and change?Should we always seek rewards ? Do we get them?Why did God give us freedom? |
 |
The younger children made dogs which looked like our mascot, Frankie. Just when you thought the flood had retreated, we put our 'Frankies' on our alternative Ark. |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday, August 17th 2008.
Sunday
August 17th 2008 |
| Today we have been thinking how God answers our prayers. We have made prayer books and filled them with our own special intentions. |
|
| Lord
Jesus, We thank you for always hearing our prayers. Help us to be grateful
when the answer comes easily and as we hope, and to trust you when the
answer seems slow in coming, or is different from what we expect. Amen |
 |
Children's Liturgy Sunday, August 24th 2008.
Sunday
August 24th 2008 |
|
Today in our liturgy, we have heard about a conversation Jesus had with
his disciples- asking them, "Who am I". (St. Matthew 16:13-20).
Peter replied,"You, are the Messiah, the Son of the living God". Jesus then said that God had revealed this to Peter and added,"You are Peter (or Rock) and on this rock I will build my Church". Because we had talked about Saint Peter just a few weeks ago, on his feast day- June 29th, we had a quiz, to see how much we remembered. It was boys against girls, though some girls joined the boys' team, as there were fewer of them. How many of the following questions could YOU answer. If you need help, most of the answers can be found in the rap poem at the end of the liturgy for June 29th! 1) What was Peter's name in the beginning? 2) What job did he do? 3) Who was Peter's brother? 4) Who changed Peter's name? 5) What does the name, Peter, mean? 6) Why did this person change Peter's name? 7) What did Jesus say he would build his church on? 8) When did Peter let Jesus down? 9) What was Peter's family name? 10) Peter became the first what? 11) In which capital city is St. Peter's church, where the Pope celebrates mass? 12) What is the city inside this city where the Pope lives? 13) Who is our pope today? 14) Who was the last pope? 15) What nationality is today's pope? 16) What nationality was the last pope? 17) What does the word, Messiah, mean? 18) What symbol is often used for St. Peter? 19) Why? 20) What did Peter want to do to copy Jesus- he failed? 21) What animal made a noise when Peter betrayed Jesus? |
|
| 22)
What happened when Peter went up a mountain with Jesus? 23) Who else was there? 24) Who else did they see? 25) How do we know when a new pope has been chosen? 26) When is St. Peter's feast day? 27) Who shares this day with him? 28) What word means turned to stone? 29) Give 5 words to describe rock. 30) What girl's name comes from Peter? |
 |
| Jesus,
We know many things about you- but the two most important are that you
are God and that you love us. Thank you, Jesus. Amen Do you remember back in May we planted sunflower seeds for Pentecost? They were the sign of new life sent in the form of the Holy Spirit. We wondered whose sunflower would grow the tallest. Well! Today, Eve brought in a photograph of her sunflower- it is ENORMOUS! Father John showed the picture to the whole congregation. Well done, Eve! Mike, who looks after the church garden came through to the liturgy room after mass to gaze at the picture. He was amazed! |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday, August 31st 2008
Sunday
August 31st 2008 |
 |
|
Our liturgy was based on today's gospel: Matthew 16:21-27. Jesus says that the one who tries to save their life will lose it, but the one who loses their life for Jesus' sake will find it, so we have been wondering what this means. Jesus lost his life for us. When we try to save ourselves, we start holding on to what we think we want, always putting ourselves before other people. We try to keep everything safe, not taking chances or listening to what God might be telling us. When we give up holding on to safety and hanging on to our own wishes all the time, when we think about the needs of others as well, we are 'losing our lives'- but finding the example of Jesus, so finding life with God. Sometimes people call this 'taking up our cross'- as Jesus carried his. John Bunyan wrote a book called 'A Pilgrim's Progress'. We are all pilgrims on our way through life. Pilgrims travel, sometimes a long way, to look for something important to them. We have been thinking what we need to take with us. |
 |
| For
our journey, we have the staff of Jesus' Cross to lean on and we have
put into our rucksack (our cross): A whistle to blow in prayer, when we need God to help us; A compass, which is the teaching of Jesus, to help us find our way; A thermal blanket of all the people we love and who love us, to keep us warm; A map of all our dreams which we join to the Holy Spirit, to help us be the best that we can be. Here is our map with our dreams of being at our best. |
 |
Here
is the key: An act of Love; An act of Joy; An act of Faith; An act of Hope; An act of Peace. |
 |
 |
| Here is an example of our pilgrims, carrying her rucksack. |
 |
|
Lord, As I take the next big step in life, as I move on to new places, new faces, to unknown things, I ask your help and blessing. Guide me in life; look after me, especially when I feel unsure of myself, or where my life is taking me. Give me courage to be true to myself, and true to you, knowing that in you I have a friend who will always be there for me. Amen |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday September 7th 2008.
Sunday
September 7th 2008 |
| Today's
Gospel is St. Matthew 18: 15-20. People who believe in Jesus and God must
try to sort out disagreements between each other, because they know that
Jesus Christ is living amongst them, in everyone. Today in our liturgy, we have talked about forgiveness and the importance of forgiveness in loving relationships. We drew the happy faces of those who are forgiven and forgive other people- and sad faces to show how miserable it feels when we do not forgive, but hold on to grudges against others. |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday September 14th 2008.
Sunday
September 14th 2008 |
| Today
we listened to a story. We heard about a girl who was unhappy because
a group of children were calling her names because her skin was a different
colour. In the end, they said 'sorry' for upsetting her and she forgave them. We talked about the importance of being fair and forgiving. We made a collage of 'Our Parish', to show how we all can live as one big family. |
 |
 |
Lord
Jesus, You remind us of how much God loves us and how he forgives us.
Help us to remember that great love and treat other people with love
and forgiveness. Amen |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday September 21st 2008.
Sunday
September 21st 2008 |
| Today we introduced a new idea at our church.Some children waited with our Saint Francis cross at the back of the church, in the narthex. As people arrived, they were invited to leave 'post-it' notelets on the cross, with the names or initials of anyone for whom they would like prayers during our mass. At the offertory procession, some children carried the cross to the altar. |
 |
The
Wonderful Harvest Pie! We all like to think we are more deserving. We are anxious about receiving enough love, so we grow worried when new people turn up in our families at home and in God's family. Today, Jesus tells a story which explains that, to God, everyone is welcome. No matter when we accept God's love in our lives or in the history of the world, we are all equal. (Mattew 20: 1-16.) Throughout history, God has called different groups of workers to the vineyard: Abraham and his family; Moses and his people (we can hear about them in the Old Testament) and now Jesus wants his disciples to know that God invites all the nations of the world. We talked about how we feel when late-comers seem to be receiving more. New members of our football club might be chosen over us to play for the match. Younger brothers and sisters might seem to be getting more attention, just because they are younger. We are not satisfied with the share we are given; it only seems this big when we are afraid- |
 |
| But we realise that when we really need our Mums and Dads, they are always there for us; we really have THIS much- |
 |
| Our
Mums and Dads love us just as much when new brothers and sisters arrive.
There isn't just one amount of love to go round- love grows so that all
the love is given to all of us. We are able to feel this sometimes, when the world seems wonderful. Some children wrote in the fruit shapes of the pie about times when they felt they had the whole world. Somebody felt this way when they went to Pioneer Camp. One of the leaders felt like this each time one of her children was born. |
 |
| We talked about how God's love is the most wonderful love of all- and is there for all of us all the time, if we could only realise that. Here is the wonderful harvest pie of love; all the pie is inside every bit. The younger children drew or coloured the fruits on the outside. |
 |
 |
Children's Liturgy, Sunday, September 28th 2008
Sunday
September 28th 2008 |
| Today we heard the story of two brothers.
One said he would not go to work, but then he did. The other promised
to work, but then he did not do it. (See the Gospel of St. Matthew 21:28-32.) We thought about times when we have let other people down. Sometimes we say we will do something and we do not do it. |
 |
On
our hands, we have shown the times we did what we were asked... and
the times we let people down. |
 |
Dear
Jesus, Amen. |