7 September 2025
Bible readings for today |
CollectE te Atua pononga, hōmai he mahi mā
mātou, tukua mai kia kaikā mātou ki te mahi ki a koe i ia rā i ia rā; inā hoki ko ngā mea e mahia ana e mātou pērā te awhi tētahi ki tētahi, waiho hei tākoha mā mātou. Whakarongo ki tēnei īnoi i runga i tōu aroha. Āmine. Servant God, grant us opportunity, give us willingness to serve you day by day; that what we do and how we bear each other’s burdens, may be our sacrifice to you. Hear this prayer for your love’s sake. Amen. |
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. The 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.
Kids MinistryKelvin the Kakapo - (Anglican Schools Office)
Ten lessons on caring for creation, including age-appropriate input, activities, stories from around the world and meaningful things you can do together. Companions with Creation (Wellington Anglican Movement) A term’s worth of learning how to better care for God’s beloved creation as individuals, members of a nuclear family, and contributors to a wider community. Season of Creation Resource for children's church and families Some creative creation ideas for children's church and families. Created by Angela Blundell, Children and Family Ministries Anglican Diocese of Auckland
Prayer ideasThese prayer ideas for use with kids could easily be adapted into prayer stations:
Carbon Footprints Plastic Planet Weather series Forest Thanks Climate Change Windmills Great books to check out
Wild Worship - Rachel Summers
A practical 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. (Challenging to find in NZ - try PaperPlus, Koorong or Amazon). 
Worship in the Woods (Engage Worship)
An amazing 10 week resource for worshipping outdoors, focusing on trees, light, roots, fungi, leaves, seeds, flowers, fruit, water and birds. Available in ebook format. 
Messy Church goes wild - Lucy Moore
This book encourages 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. Teaching kids to care for God's creation - Catholic resource offering thirty lessons that will engage children, teachers, and families in the good work of keeping our planet livable and sustainable for coming generations.
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Leaders /Adult Input
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Media
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Being a disciple (Luke 14:25-33)
Difficult passagesIt's passages like this one that make the lectionary hard work! How do you navigate such difficult passages, such as this one in Luke, as an adult -- let alone explain it to children?
We believe that there are age appropriate scriptures, and certainly there are some things in the Bible that might not be suitable for them to hear yet. However, it is our role and responsibility to steward these scriptures with love and care, and help our tamariki unpack them in a way that kindles their faith and grows their love of God. Take time to think about how you will approach this passage. Perhaps you don't read it all? Perhaps you choose a couple of verses to focus on. Perhaps you paraphrase, explain, unpack, and sensitively translate. Remember that for children, their families are their safety nets and most important people in their lives, so to hear that Jesus says we cannot be his follower if we love our parents more than God, is tough to digest at such a young age. A couple of the activities below highlight the importance of 'commitment' -- this is a great concept for kids to grasp, and a foot in the door to help them understand perhaps what jesus meant in Luke 14. Remembering Jesus bookmarkWhat you need:
CommittmentWhat is one thing that you really enjoy that you couldn’t live without? Why is it important to you? (Pause for discussion)
In today’s story, Jesus was telling the crowd that in order to follow him, they had to follow him with all their heart and make it the top priority in their lives. Wow! That’s quite a commitment!! Why do you think it was important to Jesus that his followers made him a priority? (pause) Well, I think that Jesus was teaching the people about commitment. How many of you are part of a sports team, or have been in a school play or have done a group project for school? What is it like when someone doesn’t turn up and they are supposed to, how does it make you feel? (pause) Well, I feel upset because if they had a specific job to do, then someone else has to cover for them, and if it’s a practice then I get annoyed because they won’t know what to do when they do turn up. Its very frustrating. So when Jesus is asking his followers to make him a priority, I think he is trying to tell them to not let other things distract them from learning from Jesus about the Kingdom of God . So what does this mean for us do you think? What are some things we can do to make following Jesus a priority? (pause) Give them time to think of ideas, including reading the bible regularly, praying and talking to God, going to church, loving others like Jesus would love them, forgiving people, being kind, etc. |
Gospel ConversationsThis is the sort of gospel reading that might make you think it was a good Sunday for preaching on the Old Testament ... but maybe that's exactly the attitude Jesus is addressing here! How do we face the tough demands of Jesus' teaching, and why would we want to? Apparently we need particular "ears to hear" the answers. A team from the Dunedin Diocese share their thoughts: Gillian, Jan and Anne join Michael to wrestle with the costs, joys and goals of discipleship.
Visio Lectio
Another great print design from Rev. Sarah West at Visio Lectio, shared here with permission
PNG Download Terms of Use Commitment questions
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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 more resources and ideas for honouring all the men in your community.
Loving each otherFather's Day, and Mothers Day, can be difficult for many. It can be painful for those who do not have a Dad, for those who have lost a Dad, and for those who have difficult relationships with their fathers or sons. It can 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.
Ideas
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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. |
Songs
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