19 October 2025
Bible readings for today
Today is also Tikanga Youth Sunday |
CollectE te Atua kaha rawa,
te pakari o te aroha me te mātau, āwhinatia mai mātou ki te whakawhirinaki ki tōu painga ki te whakarite i a mātou i roto i tāu Tama; e ora ana, e kīngi tahi ana me koe me te Wairua Tapu, kotahi anō Atua, ināianei, ā, mō ake tonu atu. Āmine. Mighty God, strong, loving and wise, help us to depend upon your goodness and to place our trust in your Son; who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever. Amen. |
The Widow and the Judge (Luke 18: 1-8)
Input for leaders
Another great illustration from the Visio Lectio,
thanks to Rev. Sarah West. PNG Download Terms of Use |
Gospel Conversations 2025: Jesus' parables continue, and continue to be a bit puzzling. This week we have the story of the persistent widow and the grumpy judge, and are ably led through our consideration of its perplexities by Kelvin Wright (Dunedin), Esther Clarke-Prebble (St Martha's, Dunedin) and Mannie Marara (Hadlow School, Masterton) - with Lisa filling in for the last time for a while for Michael!
Gospel Conversations 2022: The story is one of a nagging widow and a reluctant, non-God-fearing judge. It raises the question, "How on earth are we supposed to approach these parables?" Is God really meant to be equated with that unhelpful judge?
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Intergenerational worship
Ordinary Time Year C 2025 Part 2 Intergenerational Worship Series
(Angela Blundell, Auckland Dio Intergenerational Ministry) This resource has 8 weeks of worship ideas to help your community connect to God and each other through worship, sharing and creativity. 27th Sunday Ordinary Time to Reign of Christ Sunday 
A collection of resources and ideas (Intergen Australia)
Written and compiled by Chris Barras. Bible references: Luke, Psalms. Quick Questions
Preschool Play Full lesson plan for babies/toddlers (Trueway Kids)
Tell the story - try some ideas from the following...
Knock Knock - Set up a giant cardboard box and cut a door in so they can practice going in and out and knocking. Provide speech bubble cut-outs that say things like “Please help!” and let them decorate the door. Talk about times they have really wanted something and kept asking for it (Toddlers are experts at this!) Dress-up Corner - Add scarves, hats, and other simple costumes so kids can play as the widow, the judge, or neighbours. Talk about and act out asking for help and listening. Prayer board (See Pray it section) - Offer crayons, paper, and stickers for kids to draw someone they’d like to pray for or something they want to tell God about. Pray with playdough - make simple shape of things you want to ask for or thank God for. Or check out these five ways to pray with playdough (Godventure) 
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TalksA parable about prayer (Gary Neal Hansen) - a lovely retelling of the story with explanation.
Prayer and the merciless judge (RFour) - learning to pray 'in step' with God Persistence in prayer (Sermons 4 Kids) Full lessons plans & activities (Trueway Kids) - for a variety of ages. Prayer & the parable of the persistent widow (Ministry to Children) - Full lesson plan. Games & ActivitiesMemory Cards
You will need: pairs of pictures that relate to prayer. For an easy option download and print a set of the Methodist Prayer cards. At the end you can pick a few and pray them with the kids. Spread the cards on the floor face down. Kids take turns trying to find a pair by turning over two cards. If they don’t match, it is the next child’s turn. If they match, the child keeps the pair and has another go. The game ends when all the pairs have been found. Prayer Books You will need: An exercise book for each child, or fold A4 paper in half and staple to make a book. Also, stickers, glue, pens, and other things to decorate the book. Explain that this is going to be their own prayer book - a special book for them to talk with God. Talk about the kind of prayer you can do -- writing prayers, drawing, praying in colour, thank you prayers, topic prayers (for family, school, friends, etc). Let them decorate their books. At the end you might like to spread them out around the room, play some quiet music, and give them time to write/draw their first prayer. Chasing Chairs Set out two rows of chairs back to back. There should be one less chair than people. Get all the children to pick a word that relates to prayer for them. They must all be different. Be creative!! Choose someone to be ‘it’. The rest of the children sit on the chairs. The ‘it’ person walks around the chairs and calls out the different pray words. When someone’s word is called, they must get up and follow the ‘it’ person around the chairs. When the ‘it’ person feels like it, they can call out “Go Pray!’ and everyone must try and sit on a chair. The person who misses out becomes the next ‘it’ person. Challenge! Give the kids some doable but difficult challenges(depending on their ages and stages) e.g. walk across a room balancing a pillow on their head, or catching a ball ten times without dropping it. Encourage them to keep going until they master it and congratulate them. Talk about how it was important they didn’t give up and relate to prayer. Pray it!Why not set up a prayer board like this one from Flame Creative? This is a great way to encourage persistence in prayer.
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Tikanga Youth Sunday
Three Tikanga Youth Sunday is the closest Sunday to the 19th of October every year and it is dedicated to celebrating youth in the three Tikanga of the Anglican Church throughout Aotearoa and Polynesia. On this day we remember Tarore of Waharoa, a young girl who helped to spread the Gospel throughout Aotearoa.
TāroreGodly Play Story of Tārore - Originally gifted to the Chapel of Tarore at Ngātiawa, recrafted by Rachel Thorpe and Sir David Moxon in 2025.
A Pilgrim's Guide - The Story of Tārore of Waharoa (Archbishop David Moxon) Tārore of Waharoa: a parable of hope (Nelson Diocese) Tarore of Waharoa, St Andrew's Anglican Church Taupō. Tārore and Her Book, Joy Cowley, 2009. |
ResourcesChronicles of Paki (information on SUNZ)
Ngakuku, Tarore and the Little Book (SUNZ) St Michael's Kelburn celebrate Tikanga Youth Sunday (Anglican Taonga) |
