Autumn Term 1

This half term we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green each week we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

If you are using this for class worship, you can choose items to go in a box that are taken out at the beginning of the worship.  We encourage including a Bible, cross and candle along with the liturgical cloth in the colour for the season of the church year.  You might want to have a symbol for the Lord’s Prayer that stays in the box all year, alongside the symbols we provide that highlight if we are exploring an Old Testament story, a New Testament story, a story Jesus told or an example of an individual.  For this half term you could use a heart symbol to represent love.  You can then select items relevant for each week’s story. 

You could set up a reflection area this half term using one of the resources below that provides creative ways for pupils to reflect or pray.

Weather Series

This short series of activities list different types of weather and invite pupils to use each of them as a focus of reflection and prayer. The five types of weather are related with different thoughts and feelings, including:

• being thankful
• expressing need
• being sorry
• seeking guidance
• hopes and promises

Senses series

This resource is formed of five different prayer activities that can be used together or separately in a prayer space. The activities are based around Taste, Sight, Smell, Hearing and Touch. Each activity draws on different senses to engage students with thinking outside themselves.

Christians believe that prayer allows them to talk directly with God and praying to God is like having a conversation with a friend.  It is a two way process, sometimes talking and sometimes listening – there are no rules about how or when.  Sometimes in our conversations, we can get selfish and make it all about us.  Jesus’ friends, the disciples, asked Jesus how to pray and Jesus helps his friends to get the most out of their conversations with God by giving them a model prayer – often called the Lord’s Prayer. Christians around the world today still use the Lord’s Prayer to help them pray.

The Lord’s Prayer is made up of seven prayers; three focussing on God and four thinking about our concerns and needs as people.  It starts and ends with the reminder that God is in control of everything but still loves people like the perfect parent. The middle lines help people to think about how they can live their lives as light-bringing people. This means following God’s ways, saying sorry when they mess up and forgiving others when they hurt them. The prayer recognises that this is not always easy but God’s Spirit can help people if they trust him for everything, every day.

You could use some ideas from this collective worship

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include
Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
A symbol for prayer
A heart for the theme love

You could ask pupils to think about these questions

What is prayer?Why might somebody pray?Who might pray?Where might they pray?How might someone pray?

Read Matthew 6:5-13

KS2-4 You could watch this video from the Church of England where Christians talk about which line of the Lord’s Prayer stands out to them and why.

Play Video

What line of The Lord’s Prayer stands out to you the most and why? – Our faith

You could ask pupils to look at the Lord’s Prayer and talk with a partner about which line stands out to them and why.

• You could ask some I wonder questions:

I wonder what part of the prayer you liked best?
I wonder what part of the prayer is the most important?
I wonder which part of the prayer might be the hardest to follow?

You could invite pupils to say the Lord’s Prayer together and do the sign language together

You could invite pupils to sing the Lord’s Prayer using the song resource shared in the introduction

Christians believe God is love and Jesus starts his model prayer by reminding people that God loves. Jesus taught his friends to start with ‘Our Father’; he used the word ‘Abba’ the Aramaic word for Father.  Jesus was reminding his friends that God is their heavenly father who loves them.  Christians believe that God’s love is bigger, stronger, purer and kinder than anything we can imagine which is why Christians ‘hallow’ – which means honour and praise – his name. Hallow is from the Greek word ‘hagiazo’ meaning holy, set apart, perfect or pure. Christian’s believe God’s love is the same regardless of age, gender or race and he gives everyone the chance to respond to his love by loving him, his creation and those around us.

You could 

explore the importance of names and explore some names for God in the Bible eg Abba (Aramaic), Pater(Greek) – Father  YHWH (Yahweh) Elohim (mighty one) Do pupils know the meaning of their own name?

explore the word hallow and what it means to show honour and praise.  Can pupils think of ways Christians show honour and praise to God?

explore how God’s name is very holy and Christians hold it in awe and respect. It has to be handled with great care. 

Here is an idea from CDBE that could be used: Show children eggs in their shell. Ask them to hold it carefully or if possible to pass it around without dropping it. If we weren’t careful, if we threw the egg around, it would break, it has to be handled with care. What else is precious and needs to be handled with care? (new born baby, pet animals etc…) God’s name is just as precious, it has to be handled with great care and we need to think about how we use it.

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include
Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
A symbol for prayer
A heart for the theme love
Words for God
An egg
A laminated picture of a hand (see reflection activity)

You could use this reflection activity

This activity encourages pupils to write their names on a giant laminated hand, in response to the Christian belief that God has our names written on his hands. This activity is about wanting to be known by God. “I have written your names on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49v16

You could invite pupils to say the Lord’s Prayer together and do the sign language together

You could invite pupils to sing the Lord’s Prayer using the song resource shared in the introduction

Naaman was a commander in the Syrian army that had captured slaves from other nations. One of them was a young girl from Israel. When she heard that her master was unwell with leprosy she told her mistress about God’s special messenger, Elisha. Naaman travelled to Israel to meet Elisha. When he humbled himself and carried out the simple task Elisha set him of washing in the River Jordan seven times, God healed him. Despite coming from a land of many gods, Naaman realised that this God was the only real God. The God who provided a young girl from another nation with the courage and mercy to point her captors towards his healing love.

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include
Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
A symbol for prayer
A heart for the theme love
Bandages, blue cloth for the river, lego figurines and the number 7 to tell the story

Read 2 Kings 5:1-19 

You could use ‘The Helpful Servant’  from the Bible Storyteller Bible

You could use these videos to help tell the story

Play Video

Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-14)

Make connections to the line of the Lord’s Prayer ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name’ – both the little girl and Elisha listened to God, and showed honour and respect for what God asked them to do.  Elisha didn’t accept the treasure but showed honour and praise to God. The little girl showed love towards Naaman and wanted to help him. 

God who provided a young girl from another nation with the courage and mercy to point her captors towards God’s healing love.

• You could ask some I wonder questions:

I wonder what part of the story you liked best?
I wonder what part of the story was the most important?
I wonder what the little girl thought when God whispered to her?
I wonder what Naaman thought when Elisha did not answer the door?
I wonder what Naaman thought as he went into the river?
I wonder what this story teaches us about listening?
I wonder what this story teaches us about love?

• You could encourage pupils to write one thing they will take away from today’s story on a heart and add it to the class reflection area

You could invite pupils to say the Lord’s Prayer together and do the sign language together

You could invite pupils to sing the Lord’s Prayer using the song resource shared in the introduction

‘I love eating ice cream’, ‘I love my dog’, ‘I love my family’. There are many things that we say that we love, but our love for ice cream may be different to our love for a dog, or our family. Christians believe the Bible tell us that we are loved by God. Sometimes it is hard to understand this. Christians believe that when bad things happen, God still loves us. When we get angry, God still loves us. When we are sad, God still loves us. When we do wrong things, God still loves us. When we feel lonely God, still loves us. These verses from the Bible remind Christians that God’s love is bigger than anything in the universe, and that everyone special and important to God, the creator of everything.

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include
Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
A symbol for prayer
A heart for the theme love
The word love and some post it notes
You could include images to represent different types of love

Read Ephesians 3:17-19

Explore the passage in Ephesians and ask pupils what it teaches Christians about God’s love

explore the range of meanings for the word ‘love’ – friendship love; romantic love; self-centred love; respectful love (for example, for parents) and sacrificial love.

explore what the Bible teaches about Love.  You could explore the greek word Agape used in the bible when descirbing God’s love for people.  Here is a video from the Bible project which helps you learn more about the word Agape

You could use some of this with KS2-4 pupils

Play Video

Agape – Love

look at 1 Corintians 13 1-8 and ask pupils to identify all the different descriptions of love.  You could encourage pupils to write the words and phrases on post it notes and add to your reflection area as a reminder.  Here is a video of the passage you could also use

Play Video

"Love Is Patient and Kind" – 1 Corinthians 13 (Bible Animation) | Logos Bible Software

You could use this video from the Church of England that includes Boris the Robot from Heartsmart talking about Letting Love In.

Make connections to the line of the Lord’s Prayer ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name’ 

You could ask some I wonder questions:
I wonder how we know we are loved?
I wonder what makes us feel unloved?
I wonder, what love might mean to you?
There are many different types of love, I wonder if you can think of any?
I wonder which description of love you like best? (using the post its from the activity above)
I wonder how we can show love to others? ( you can make connections with last week’s story of Naaman)

You could invite pupils to say the Lord’s Prayer together and do the sign language together

You could invite pupils to sing the Lord’s Prayer using the song resource shared in the introduction

Jesus was called ‘Rabbi’ by some people.  The word Rabbi means ‘teacher’. Jesus taught people about lots of different areas of life and Jesus used stories to teach people about and help people understand God.  Jesus often answered questions with a story, many of which the gospel writers wrote down – stories that contained truths about God and how he wants us to live. These stories are called parables. 

Christians believe that the best treasure is being friends with God and knowing his love in their lives. This treasure is even more important than anything they can buy or make. Jesus also said that if we give away what we have, God will give back to us a full measure. The way to keep what we have, is to give it away! Christians believe that if they keep God’s love to themselves they will lose it, because God’s love is meant to be shared.

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include
Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
A symbol for prayer
A heart for the theme love
A treasure chest
A pearl
A trowel

Read Matthew 13 45-46

You could use this video to tell the story

Play Video

The Parable of the Hidden Treasure/Pearl of Great Price: Understanding the Parables of Jesus

You could ask pupils what is the best gift they have ever received.  You could ask them if they have ever found treasure. I have some very special treasures, a stone found on the beach with a hole right through the middle, a feather from a peacock’s tail and my medals from trampoline competitions. None of my treasures are worth very much, but they are special to me. Other people have treasures too, like special programmes from football matches or photos of and cards from people they love. 

Explain that today we are going to hear about story about a very special gift. In fact it is priceless. It is beautiful and delicate.  (You could have a pearl and hold it up)

Make connections to the line of the Lord’s Prayer ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name’ and God’s love for people

You could explore how Love is more than just words. It is expressed in actions and care.  Can pupils give examples.  You can link back to the story of Naaman and the Corinthians passage from last week. ‘You show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely talking about it’ 1 John 3:18 (CEV)

You could use this collective worship plan ‘the price is right’ by the Diocese of Guildford

You could ask some I wonder questions:

• I wonder what part of the story you liked best?
• I wonder what part of the story was the most important?
• I wonder why Jesus told this story?
• I wonder what we can learn from this story?
• I wonder what this story teaches us about love?

You could ask pupils to think about the ways they can show love to others this week ( you could encourage pupils to look at the words they wrote last week on the post it notes).

You could invite pupils to say the Lord’s Prayer together and do the sign language together

You could invite pupils to sing the Lord’s Prayer using the song resource shared in the introduction

St Francis Saints day is 4^th October

Francis of Assisi was an Italian Christian born who was made a saint in 1228. He embraced a life of poverty so that the could serve God. He thought of all nature as the mirror of God, and so felt it was really important to look after every single thing God had made. It is believed that he once persuaded a wolf to stop attacking the people of the town of Gubbio and their lifestock if the people of the town agreed to feed the wolf. He set up monastic communities for men and women, many of which still survive, where people can choose to serve God by living a simple life looking after the world around them and those that live in it

St Francis was born in Assisi in 1182.  His Christian name was Giovanni but this name was changed by his father, to Francis.  

His father was a wealthy tradesman and when he was young, Francis was guilty of spending a lot of money enjoying life to the full with his friends.  He came face to face with a beggar whilst he was out with his friends one day.  His friends ignored the beggar’s pleas for help but Francis gave all he had in his pockets to the poor beggar.  This was a symbol of what was to come in his life.

After converting to Christianity, He embraced a life of poverty so that he could serve God Like many of the early saints, he lived a simple life.  He looked at Jesus Christ as an example to follow.  His family did not agree with his new way of life and he was disowned by his father.  Francis visited hospitals, helped look after the patients and preached on the streets.

Francis thought of all nature as the mirror of God, and so felt it was really important to look after every single thing God had made. 

Francis came to be known as a friend of animals, and there are many stories about his kindness towards them.  One of these stories tells of him travelling with his friends one day and coming to a place where many birds had gathered in the trees.  Francis told his friends; “Wait for me while I preach to the birds”.  Francis spoke to the birds, saying something like this:

“My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you…you neither sow nor reap, and God gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter…. Therefore, always seek to praise God.”

This story, and the words of St. Francis, remind of the words of Jesus Christ:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear…Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds?”

(Luke 12: 22-24)

It is believed that he once persuaded a wolf to stop attacking the people of the town of Gubbio and their lifestock if the people of the town agreed to feed the wolf. 

People began to gather around Francis.  They would go around the country, dressed simply and preaching the Gospel. He set up monastic communities for men and women, many of which still survive, where people can choose to serve God by living a simple life looking after the world around them and those that live in it. This group of people, under the leadership of Francis, became known as the Franciscans.

Among St Francis’ sayings are the following:

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible”

You could use this video and start at 2:39 note there are some images of fighting

Play Video

Story of Saint Francis of Assisi | English | Story of Saints

This week we are in ordinary time and the liturgical colour is green we encourage you to

Set up your worship table or centre of the class circle with the ordinary time (green) cloth and take out the Bible, cross and light candle.

Say opening responses
If you have school responses or opening words for collective worship say them together or say the following:

We take out the Bible 
 –  and think about God the Father
We take out the cross 
 –  and think about God’s Son, Jesus
We light the candle
 –  and think about God, the Holy Spirit

Worship box

This week you could include

• Bible, cross, candle, green cloth
• A symbol for prayer
• A heart for the theme love
• A picture of St Francis
• A bag of money
• A picture of some animals
• A mirror
• A globe

 Tell the story of St Francis.

You could ask some I wonder questions:

• I wonder what part of the story you liked best?
• I wonder what part of the story was the most important?
• I wonder what we can learn from this story and from St Francis?
• I wonder what this story teaches us about love? Loving others, loving our world

St Francis of Assisi’s Prayer is a famous prayer. It calls on everyone to try and create the opposite of what they see in the world.  It calls for strength, to help us show love meet the needs of others .

You could invite pupils to pray or reflect on the words

The Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; 
where there is hatred, let me sow love; 
where there is injury, pardon; 
where there is doubt, faith; 
where there is despair, hope; 
where there is darkness, light; 
and where there is sadness, joy. 
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; 
to be understood, as to understand; 
to be loved, as to love; 
For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Amen. 

You could sing or listen to the words of Make me a channel of your peace

Play Video

Make Me a Channel of Your Peace with Lyrics

I wonder how you could live out some of these words this week?