Talking about Worship and Fruit Kebabs….

Phil Ray, the Wessex Synod Children and Youth Development Officer (CYDO), joined us at Fleet on Sunday 11th May to work with our young people.  We looked at and talked about the United Reformed Church’s ‘Charter for Children’.  This led on to us talking about the role of the young people in our church life and what they would like to see included as part of the worship.  After lots of talking and some difficult questions for Phil to try and answer, we set about planning our own ideal act of worship.

Apples, bananas, strawberries, mango, grapes, marshmallows, and of course sweets – the smell of the fruit in the room had been tantalising us all the time we had been talking.  The children were desperate to know what it was all for.  Fruit kebabs….  we were going to use the different fruits to represent the different activities that they would like to have included in their ideal worship.  The choice was theirs…  difficult! – did they use strawberries to represent the singing of hymns, or did they use marshmallows?  What about prayers – which fruit should they use to represent them in their service?

After they had finished their kebabs, Phil talked to the young people about their choices.  Interesting…  could we sometimes incorporate dance into our services?  Who enjoyed the singing?  What did they think about prayers?  Who enjoyed taking part in communion?  Who would like more stories?  Lots of ideas for both adults and children to think about.  Then it was what they had all been waiting for – time to eat their kebabs!

Thank you, Phil, for coming and joining us, and thank you to all our wonderful children (and of course the adults!)  It was lovely to see all the children working together, the older ones helping the little ones.  Getting together can be such fun…

Margaret Armes

(Read the URC Children’s Charter here.)