3 September 2023
Bible readings for today
Liturgical colour: GREEN This Sunday is Father's Day in New Zealand, and it is also the first Sunday of the Season of Creation. |
CollectGod of unchangeable power,
our strength at all times; guard us from all dangers and support us in all difficulties that we may live victoriously now and forever; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. E te Atua mau tonu, tō mātou kaha i ngā wā katoa; tiakina mātou i ngā kino me te tautoko i a mātou i roto i ngā raru kia ora ai mātou i runga i tōu wikitōria inaianei, ā, ake tonu atu; ko Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Kaiwhakaora. Āmine. |
Season of Creation
The Season of Creation starts on 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends on 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Season of Creation is an annual celebration of prayer and action to protect creation, and has been gaining traction around the world as something to focus on during September - a particularly good month for the Southern Hemisphere as the days get warmer and new growth gets underway.
Season of Creation is an annual celebration of prayer and action to protect creation, and has been gaining traction around the world as something to focus on during September - a particularly good month for the Southern Hemisphere as the days get warmer and new growth gets underway.
Creation care in the BibleA comprehensive survey of Biblical verses from Genesis to Revelation that tell us about ourselves and creation. As a bonus, Leunig made some cartoons to illustrate it.
Intergenerational WorshipIntergen Australia have collated some intergenerational worship ideas for the Sundays of the season, around the themes of Forest, Land, Wilderness and River. Written and compiled by Michelle Cook.
Prayer ideasIdeas from Prayer Spaces in Schools:
Carbon Footprints Plastic Planet Weather series Forest Thanks Climate Change Windmills Liturgy of the ElementsA liturgy written by Silvia Purdie (https://www.conversations.net.nz) that reflects on creation through stone, air, fire, and water
Kelvin the Kakapo
How do we teach about looking after our world to young children from a Christian perspective? This beautiful resource was produced by Green Anglicans in South Africa, who generously allowed the Anglican Schools Office to adapt it for use in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia. It provides all you need for 10 lessons on caring for creation, including age-appropriate input, activities, stories from around the world and meaningful things you can do together.
Messy Church goes wildMessy Church goes wild
Check out this new book by Lucy Moore. Messy Church Goes Wild is the movement within Messy Church which aims to encourage Messy Churches to meet God outdoors, love the natural world, experience a sense of awe and wonder there and to be more eco-aware in all we do, both inside and out, as gathered and dispersed church, for the good of the planet. Messy Church Goes Wild is the movement within Messy Church which aims to encourage Messy Churches to meet God outdoors, love the natural world, experience a sense of awe and wonder there and to be more eco-aware in all we do, both inside and out, as gathered and dispersed church, for the good of the planet. 
Wild Worship
Wild Worship - Rachel Summers
Wild Worship is a practical book, a guide full of reflection, prayer and activities to help families and church groups experience God in a new way. As a forest school practitioner Rachel Summers wants to "...hold space to allow others to connect with creation" helping people find joy in finding God without walls and ceilings. |
Resources
Resound WorshipResound Worship have released a 13 track Doxecology album of ecologically themed worship songs designed for congregational singing, along with a 13 week study guide.
Worship in the WoodsEngage Worship have prepared an amazing 10 week resource for worshipping outdoors, focussing on trees, light, roots, fungi, leaves, seeds, flowers, fruit, water and birds.
Climate Change prayer bookFrom Caritas
Lambeth Conference WebinarOne year ago, the Lambeth Conference met in the garden of Lambeth Palace. Bishops shared the Lambeth Call on the Environment and Sustainable Development and launched The Communion Forest.
Learn about what’s happened since. Join the webinar on 20 or 21 September (60mins, choose one date only) to hear how you can add your voice to the Lambeth Call, help to grow the Communion Forest and campaign for change in the lead up to COP28. Register here 
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The cost of being a disciple (Matthew 16:21-28)
In our Gospel reading today Jesus explains to his disciples the cost of following him.
Intergenerational WorshipThe beginning of the Season of Creation series, written and compiled by Michelle Cook. See the Intergen website for details.
Drama based on Matthew 16:26A drama written and performed by the teenagers at Waikanae Anglican Church, a great way to introduce an all-age talk on Matthew 16:26
Drama based on Matthew 16:26: What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? Stage set: Two market stalls, one named "Self-Image" and the other labelled "Success". Self-image stall to be decorated with Facebook Thumbs Up cut-outs, Success to be decorated with pictures of trophies and bags of money. Sales-people behind stalls holding up mirrors and shouting. Characters: 4: Human, Jesus, Self-image salesman, Success salesman. Extras can be added to market stalls as needed. Human walks onto stage Listens to shouting from stall holders. Turns to the Self image stall and say’s “Mirror, mirror on Facebook tell me how I outghtta look.” A sales person comes out from that stall and sticks Facebook thumbs up on the human and takes a selfie with them. Human looks at himself in the mirror and smiles) Human walks up to the Success stall-explores their stuff/trophies, and say’s “mirror, mirror of success tell me am I yet the best.” Stall owner comes out and say’s “not yet, you just need a few of these, you see it’s man you need to please.” And gives them a pile of trophies to hold. Human goes back to the Self image stand and takes a new selfie with their trophies. Still more shouting from stall holders and the human is starting to look tired. They look again to the Success stall, takes a look in the mirror and say’s “Mirror, mirror of Mr Bankman tell me who I really am.” The stall holder gives the human a bag of money and says “you’re made of money and nothing else so get about it and increase your wealth.” The Human says “Who can help, tell me who I really am. Facebook is a sham, (starts to peel of the Facebook thumbs) success is not the plan, (dumps trophies on the ground) money doesn’t make the man, (dumps the money bag pictures) I want to know just who I am! I’m lost, I’ve been tossed around, help me find my solid ground (Makes praying hands) Jesus enters “Come here my Son, I know your name. Your life is not meant to be about fame, you’ll find that only leads to shame. I made you, so start with me, life’s ahead, come along for the journey!” Jesus and Human walk off freely and lightly together…. 
Craft - service voucher toolkit
What you need:
There are many ways you can make a toolkit, but we like the idea of a food container shown here -- you just need a bit of card, scissors, glue, blue tack, felts and crayons to decorate. For younger children you might like to pre-cut a few of the tool templates. What to do: Get the children to draw tools that symbolise different jobs around the house that they can help with. Eg broom for sweeping the kitchen floor, rubbish bin for taking out the rubbish, scrub brush for doing the dishes. Stick onto the side of the box. How to use: Tell the children they can use it as a prayer tool by challenging them to ‘pray’ through service at least twice during the week ahead. Get them to think of ideas of things they can do as their act of service and put them inside the box, eg. emptying their lunch boxes, tidying the shoe rack, sweeping the front door step, vacuuming the lounge, wiping down the basins, clearing the table after dinner. Don’t forget to follow up next week to see if anyone did and what that experience was like. |
Gospel ConversationsWho would have thought that this short passage in Matthew could hold some parenting advice? Or voting advice? Gillian, Damon and Jeremy join Michael this week to see what is possible!
All age talkWhat do you think would happen if no one ever washed their dishes or cleaned their toilets? (Pause for discussion) It wouldn’t be very nice, would it? In fact, if no one ever even flushed the toilet, it wouldn’t take long for it to get very gross indeed! So I guess it’s important that we do clean dishes and toilets regularly. Do any of you have to do the dishes or clean toilets at home? (Pause) I do, and it’s my least favourite job. Well, in today’s story Jesus talked about something unpleasant that he had to do. Can anyone remember what that was? (pause) Jesus knew what God wanted him to do. But Jesus also knew that by obeying God that good would come from it, so he was willing to make the sacrifice. And we benefit from Jesus’ sacrifice everyday!
When I have to do something that I don’t really enjoy like cleaning, I try to make it easier by remembering why I’m doing it, just like Jesus did. So, next time you are asked to do something that you don’t particularly enjoy, such as cleaning your room, try turning it into an act of service for Jesus. You could use it as an opportunity to pray for God while you are cleaning, you could even put on your favourite music to listen to while you clean. Quick questions
String cross prayers
String cross prayers from Flame Creative Children's Ministry
Image sourced from Flame Creative Children's Ministry Liturgy - call to worshipCall to Worship
(based on Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28) Listen! God is calling! Can you hear it? Calling us to turn away from self-interest; to put down the things that distract us, to take up our cross and follow. Can you hear it? from re:Worship Game - fortunately, unfortunatelyA game for older children
Preparation: nothing! What you need: nothing! What to do: Have all the children sit in a circle. The leader will start the game by saying ‘Once upon a time Bob was going for a walk’ (you could have a different sentence starter if you want!) The person sitting on the right of the leader must then continue the story with one sentence starting with the word ‘fortunately’. Eg ‘Fortunately Bob had brought along his dog for company.’ The next person in the circle continues the story with a sentence. But this time starts with ‘Unfortunately’ Eg. ‘Unfortunately the dog decided to run away from Bob.’ The game continues around the circle swapping between ‘fortunately’ and ‘unfortunately’ until everyone has had a go. If you can, try to tell a complete story so that the last person’s sentence finishes the story. An example of a story: Person a Once upon a time Bob was going for a walk Person b Fortunately Bob had brought along his dog for company Person c Unfortunately the dog decided to run away from Bob Person d Fortunately Bob had a doggie treat to entice the dog back Person e Unfortunately it made the dog throw up Person f Fortunately a vet saw it happened and came over to help Person g Unfortunately the vet could only speak Japanese Person h Fortunately the vet managed to save Bob’s dog anyway! Note: as another idea for a game, you could get the children to clean the church garden/pathways, or clean the kitchen as an act of service to the parish community. If you divide them into groups, have adequate supervision and perhaps an incentive like chocolate, it could be a good way of exploring the themes of this weeks reading. text Game - how do you feel?What you need: you will need a list of scenarios (you could use the examples below or create your own), a copy of the face pictures
What to do: sit in a big circle on the floor. Put the face pictures in the middle. Explain that you will read out an event that could happen to someone The children then have to make the face of how they might feel if that event had happened to them. If they can’t think of a face then they can point to a face on the face pictures. Repeat with each event on your list. If you want to, you could then ask them to name how they would feel. Eg happy, sad, angry etc. List of events:
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Moses and the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-15)
All-age service planYouth and Children's Work have an All-age plan for Moses and the burning bush, written by Lynn Alexander.
You can find the plan here 
Discussion questions
Children's ProgrammesScripture Union Scotland has a great new resource, One Big Story, for helping kids unpack the Bible over 2 years, and their material in Term 2 covers the story of Moses. See more here >>
Burning bush crafts
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All-age talk: explore togetherThe Purple edition of Explore Together, available at Scripture Union New Zealand, has a session on Moses and the burning bush. Contact your diocesan office to see if they have a copy, or order one from SUNZ.
Craft - fire slimeHow to make 'Fire Slime' by Everyday chaos and calm
Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt (PG, 1998) is a beautiful animated film about the life of Moses. You could also encourage families to watch the film at home, if suitable for the ages of the children. You can read the Commonsense Media review here.
Above is a clip from the film that shows this part of the story. |
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Father's Day
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Today is Fathers' day in New Zealand, celebrated on the first Sunday of the month. To help you navigate this day in a sensitive way, check out the Strandz page for resources and ideas for honouring all the men in your community.
God Loves You CardsWhat you need: Card, assorted bits of coloured paper, magazines etc to decorate with, scissors, glue, felts and crayons.
Preparation: You might like to make a few examples of card designs. There are plenty of ideas on the internet if you are feeling un-creative. Try searching 'making cards' or 'card designs' and see what you can find! What to do: Instruct the children that they can decorate their card anyway they like, and include the message 'God loves you!' in the middle. For younger children you might like to pre-write this in the blank cards. When they have finished, get them to choose who they want to send the card to. It might be someone in the congregation, a neighbour, a teacher etc. Remind them that God's love is for everyone, so perhaps they could give the card to someone they might not normally give a card to. |
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Father's Day Ideas
Father's day, and Mothers day, is fraught for a variety of different reasons. It can be painful for those who do not have a Dad, or those who have lost Dads. It can also be painful for those who wish to be Fathers or for those who have lost their partners. For these reasons, and many more, I recommend using these days as celebrations of spiritual parents (anyone), and making gifts for a variety of different people who have had positive impacts in children's lives.
- Jar of Hershey's Kisses (It's Written on the Walls)
- M&Ms (Sisters What)
- Plant Pots (Whimsical Mumblings)
- Cookies (Living Locurto)
- Superhero Cards (The Best Ideas for Kids)
- Framed Fingerprints
- Fold out Card (Artsy Craftsy Mom)
- Seed Bombs (One Little Project)
Good Good Father
I have loved this worship song from Chris Tomlin, ever since I first heard it. Perhaps it was the simple words, the melody, the reminder that God is a loving, good Father -- who's integrity and character doesn't change, even when I don't have all the answers. Perhaps its just a classic Chris Tomlin song.
However, this song has become more meaningful to me recently.
A few years ago, I travelled back to the UK, to sit beside my grandmother in a hospital room as she lived out the final two weeks of her life with Leukemia. One day, a chaplain dropped by and was talking to my gran, and asked if she would like to hear a song. He pulled out a little bluetooth speaker, and the room was filled with 'Good Good Father'. My 92 year old grandmother lay peacefully still, smiling, as she soaked in the words. She loved it. So much that she asked for it to be played at the small 'celebration of life' service that was held at home for her a couple of weeks later. God's goodness and grace doesn't change -- no matter how old we are. His love for us is the same. He is a good good father.
— Diana, Anglican Diocese of Wellington.
However, this song has become more meaningful to me recently.
A few years ago, I travelled back to the UK, to sit beside my grandmother in a hospital room as she lived out the final two weeks of her life with Leukemia. One day, a chaplain dropped by and was talking to my gran, and asked if she would like to hear a song. He pulled out a little bluetooth speaker, and the room was filled with 'Good Good Father'. My 92 year old grandmother lay peacefully still, smiling, as she soaked in the words. She loved it. So much that she asked for it to be played at the small 'celebration of life' service that was held at home for her a couple of weeks later. God's goodness and grace doesn't change -- no matter how old we are. His love for us is the same. He is a good good father.
— Diana, Anglican Diocese of Wellington.
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