Children's Liturgy Sunday September 6th 2009

CREATIONTIDE.
 




We were delighted to be together again after the Summer holidays and we talked about the wonderful places we had been and the lovely things we had seen. Someone had visited an enormous chocolate shop; someone had seen an alpaca and someone had caught crabs. One of the leaders had caught crabs- 10 of them- using a line, for the first time in her life. She returned them to the sea!
We realised how much there is to enjoy everything that God has created in nature. Also, now is the time when farmers are busy gathering in their crops- Zoe knew this was called the harvest. This will be the food we need in fthe future.

We talked about how much our future world depends on what we do today- including the futures of all our brothers and sisters in other countries.

If we spend our time buying lots of things, thinking we need to own more and more, we build more and more factories to make goods. These factories produce lots of waste gasses- mostly carbon, which damage the atmosphere- the air- around us. The earth has a layer high above us called the ozone layer, which acts like a sun-shield, protecting us from the sun's rays. When this layer is damaged by the gasses which manufacturing processes create, the world gets hotter and the weather patterns all begin to change.

In this country, we don't always notice straight away. If we have a poor harvest, we are able to buy food from elsewhere. We import food from all around the world, using up the earth's resources in fuel for aeroplanes and boats to bring it here. In poorer countries, a bad crop spells disaster. We remembered the children at Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe. There, the food which is eaten is grown nearby. If it doesn't grow, there can be no slipping out to a supermarket to buy from elsewhere.

In any case, having lots of possessions does not make us happy. We are happiest when we are sharing our lives with others and when we are enjoying God-given beauty in our world and in our wildlife.

Sometimes churches hold Harvest Festivals at this time of the year, to thank God for all that is given to us. People take food they have grown in baskets to place on the altars in the churches. We thought we would do something a little different. We would draw our parish baskets, but would put in them the actions we are taking in order to take care of God's world and to protect it for everyone else, including the people who will come after us.

 
We would look at a new version of the Lord's Prayer. When we say 'forgive us our trespasses', we would think about the things we have done which harm our world. We would say sorry for not making sure that everyone has clean water and enough to eat; that some animals are dying out. We have been selfish in wanting to own things, throwing lots away without thought. Then we could show we were sorry by beginning to live in a simpler way and trying to work out how to care for the planet.

Here are our friends in Zimbabwe.
 
On our Parish Basket Creationtide sheets, there are some basic ideas for saving energy and other resources. Someone remembered to suggest not leaving the cold-water tap running, when we clean our teeth; not leaving lights on or our T.V.s on standby- which many of us do. We could buy food, which has grown near to home; and we could try growing some ourselves. We started today, by sowing some salad seeds in pots, which we took back into church. We also took our parish basket leaflets for all the families. Some children gave out the leaflts during the hymn after Communion. Someone had already taken a box of leaflets to the Rosary church, which some of our parish families attend.
On October 4th, we will see just how much our parish cares about our world. We hope some people will have bright ideas for us to do more in future to value all we are given.