Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

I've often struggled with how to approach Remembrance Sunday from a Christian perspective and I've come to find the beginning of John's gospel really helpful. As the fields were churned up by fighting, unseen poppy seeds were distributed, which meant that the following year the fields were full of bright poppies. Life came where death had been. Life found a way. This always reminds me of the verse in John 1:4-5 describing Jesus, which says:  4  In him was life, and that life was the light of all people.   5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Just as life persisted in the poppy fields, Jesus' light will never be put out. With God there is always hope that war and death and violence will be defeated. This craft helps to explore this verse and this idea. You will need : Black paper, a hole punch, sellotape, glue, red paper, scissors, battery operated tea lights. Cut a roughly A6 size piece of black paper or card ...

This Sunday will be Remembrance Sunday and, because of our new restrictions, we will have to do things differently this year. Here are some resources to help! This is the family service video I made for our diocese this week, including a short story of a real soldier who died in WW1 and what the Bible says in Isaiah 2: 4 about the hope that God will bring Peace between nations.  Click here for the simple liturgy, if you'd like to follow along with the words. This is the story of the soldier just by itself:  Here is a 2 minute video of images to help visual children (and adults!) to reflect during the 2 minutes silence. This is a play dough mat using a verse from Revelation to help explore Remembrance day themes. Here are some prayer ideas for people and places in conflict: Play dough prayers for peace Flying dove peace prayers Praying for peace with zips

Remembrance Sunday can be quite sensitive for many reasons and schools often request assemblies at this time.  Here's an assembly based on the theme of peace that can be adapted for any age group. You will need: a large poppy prop, bubble mix and bubble wand, poppy seeds (optional but useful!) Ask Children about the poppies they see people wearing at  this  time of year and might be wearing themselves.  What are they for?  Using the prop,  talk  about the different parts of the poppy Red petals- a reminder of the blood that was and is spilled in wars- sacrifice of others Flower-the poppies that grew on the battlefields were a sign of new life and hope for the future leaf- set at 11 o clock position to remind us of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when the  armistice  was signed.   This  is the day and the time we remember those who have died. Talk about the fact that war is a painful, hurtful th...

I've often found Remembrance Sunday to be a day both of challenge and of opportunity when working with children: Challenge because it's vital to get a good balance between respectfully remembering those who have died and fought in war and praying for peace and opportunity because there are amazing discussions to be had!  The depth of what children perceive and offer is profound. This year I've designed a play dough mat to help children to reflect on those 2 key areas- remembrance and peace- and have tied it in with a verse from Revelation 21 about the new Jerusalem where there is no more pain, sadness or death.  This verse is a great conversation starter to help the children think about how they could pray for the world how they could help God to bring His Kingdom. Click here to print the sheet.  Laminate the sheet if you intend to use it more than once and the play dough will be easy to remove!