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Festivals Together - Past, present and future
Festivals Together - Past, present and future
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Past, present and future Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is often one of the few occasions in the church year where those gathered are truly of all ages. There will be men and women in their eighties and nineties and there will be young children from Brownies and Beavers, w…
Festivals Together - Children for a change
Festivals Together - Children for a change
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Children for a change St Nicholas (6 December) Unless your church is named after St Nicholas, it’s unlikely you will have celebrated this as a festival. But it’s a great opportunity to focus on children and families, and might make part of a special event during the approach to C…
Festivals Together - No time like the present
Festivals Together - No time like the present
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
No Time like the present Christmas Day Some churches have a strong tradition of family attendance on Christmas Day, while others seem to have a small gathering of regulars. There may also be visitors present, some familiar with church, others not. Whatever group are present, the …
Festivals Together - The first time ever
Festivals Together - The first time ever
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
The first time ever Easter Sunday Easter Sunday should be the most joyful event in the church year. Our churches are at their best on Easter Sunday, with glorious flowers and, where used, wonderful vestments. In the past churchgoers would wear their best – hence the tradition of …
Festivals Together - Fire, wind and adventure
Festivals Together - Fire, wind and adventure
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Fire, wind and adventure Pentecost Pentecost is a much less well-known festival, both in our culture and even in the church calendar, yet it is not just theologically significant but also rich in some of our more well-known symbols. The energy and excitement that emanate from the…
Festivals Together - Holding the baby
Festivals Together - Holding the baby
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Holding the baby Father’s Day Festivals Together Unlike Mothering Sunday, Father’s Day holds no place in the church calendar. Yet over the past fifty years it has grown massively in importance within UK culture. Children will prepare for it with the same enthusiasm as they employ…
Festivals Together - Feast with friends, sing with saints
Festivals Together - Feast with friends, sing with saints
by
Feast with friends, sing with saints All Saints’ Day (1 November) All Saints’ Day falls on 1 November, and is largely irrelevant to our contemporary culture. It happens to be the day after 31 October, or Hallowe’en, now a massive event for children and families. It is also the da…
Festivals Together - Light in the dark
Festivals Together - Light in the dark
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Light in the dark Easter Vigil The Easter Vigil may be held on Saturday evening, or very early on Sunday morning. It is one of the great treasures in the Church’s store of worship, and yet is rarely seen in terms of an event which can engage children and those on the edge of the …
Worship Together - Bodies, places and spaces
Worship Together - Bodies, places and spaces
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Bodies, places and spaces Creating all-age worship: the key components Part 1: Worship Together Churches are amazing spaces. Whether a whitewashed medieval stone building or a 1990s brick-built hall, these spaces are often the largest that we engage with during our week. If we go…
Worship Together - Skeletons and Shapes
Worship Together - Skeletons and Shapes
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Skeletons and Shapes Creating all-age worship: the key components Part 1: Worship Together When my niece was about 4 years old I took her with me to a mid-week Book of Common Prayer Eucharist in the market-town Anglican church near where she lived. She was at the age when doing a…
Festivals Together - Parade with passion
Festivals Together - Parade with passion
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Parade with passion Palm Sunday The Palm Sunday procession marks the beginning of the greatest week in the church calendar, the week when we engage again with the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross and beyond. The story is so powerful and contains so many core images and motifs…
Festivals Together - Who's the mummy?
Festivals Together - Who's the mummy?
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Who’s the mummy? Mothering Sunday The celebration of Mothering Sunday has changed greatly over the past decades. In some parishes it remains one of the days when a high number of occasional churchgoers can be expected, but in others it has been superseded by the commercial ‘Mothe…
Festivals Together - Serious stillness
Festivals Together - Serious stillness
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Serious stillness Good Friday Good Friday is always a public holiday in the United Kingdom, regardless of where Easter and school holidays fall. This means it is increasingly an opportunity for churches to engage with a range of ages. However, Good Friday presents particular chal…
Festivals Together - Looking back, moving on
Festivals Together - Looking back, moving on
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Looking back, moving on Candlemas (2 February) Candlemas is a festival full of Christian symbolism, folk tradition and church history, which means there is a wealth of images and themes to explore. It marks a turning point in three ways – within the Church it is the moment we tak…
Worship Together - Universal Stories
Worship Together - Universal Stories
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Universal stories – it happens to us all Creating all-age worship: the key components Part 1: Worship Together Creating worship that has the potential to engage everyone present needs structure and pattern, it needs to be multi-sensory, it needs to have moments of mystery, but pe…
Worship Together - Mystery and Wonder
Worship Together - Mystery and Wonder
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Mystery and wonder Creating all-age worship: the key components Part 1: Worship Together It may seem strange to include mystery and wonder as key components of good all-age worship. Yet the sharing of moments of awe and astonishment is one of the things that help cross-generation…
Worship Together - Putting it all together