Children's Liturgy Sunday November 30th 2008
The
FIRST SUNDAY of ADVENT
|
| |
'Advent'
means 'coming' or 'arrival'. There are four Sundays in Advent, the time
of the year when we eagerly wait to welcome the birth of Jesus at Christmas.
There are lots of distractions in preparing for Christmas, especially
in the giving and receiving of presents. One way to get ready for this
wonderful event is to think about how we give ourselves to others, which
is the most important kind of giving. If we were travelling to Bethlehem,
all Jesus would want us to take is a heart full of love.
To help us remember this, we are making a different kind of crib this
year. We are calling our Advent project 'The Second Nowell', because it
will be made of things being used for the second time around. No doubt
you have heard of the carol, 'The First Nowell'! ('Nowell' means a song.)
|
|
 |
|
We
asked people in the parish to help us collect materials we could use
again, such as plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and waste pieces of
cloth. We painted the bottles with left-over paint. |
|
 |
|
We
made the big boxes into a stable. Then we made the bottles into models
of us. We could be ourselves or any character from the Christmas story,
or any animal coming to the manger.
We asked the people of the parish if they wanted to come with us to Bethlehem.
If they wanted us to make a model of them, we asked them to give a small
donation to the Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe, who care for children
who have lost their parents because of the AIDS epidemic.
Father David Everitt, who spent some time in our parish, before going
out to Zimbabwe to work with people who have leprosy and at Mother of
Peace, says that there is great hunger. People in the surrounding area
are walking for four or five days without food to ask for something to
eat at the Community. Now there is a cholera epidemic in the country.
There are shortages of the most basic of goods, so a little help goes
a long way.
If members of our parish give through our liturgy team, we give them a
Christmas card explaining all of this.
Would you like to come to Bethlehem with us to help?
Mary is coming as Mary; Bob is coming as Joseph; Mandy wanted to come
as an angel. |
|
 |
|
| Father John was the first to
arrive as himself- you can also see Lynn coming along as a camel.
|
|
 |
|
| Father
David wanted to come as a lion, to remind everyone of Africa. Margaret
wanted to arrive as a sheep. She often reads in church, so she kept her
glasses on. |
|
 |
|
| In
this shot, you can see the unmistakeable figure of Maggs, complete with
spiked red hair, arriving in the hayloft with a child who seems to have
changed into Father Christmas! |
|
 |
|
| And
here you can see all the children who have made the journey so far- some
didn't quite get dressed in time, but will no doubt be ready by next week.
|
|
 |
|
We
remember the people of the world who actually live on rubbish dumps, searching
for food; and the children whose only toys are made from bits of scrap.
We pray for eveyone who would be delighted to find what we throw away
every day. Amen. |
| |
( categories: )
|
