Worship Resources
Sharing ideas for what has worked and what might work in our chapel services.
Across our schools in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, we hold more than 100 chapel services a week, 40 weeks a year. That’s at least 4000 creative, age-appropriate service ideas being generated every year just by our group of schools. It makes sense to share them with each other, for all our sakes! This page has been set up so that anything from single, seed ideas to full liturgies can be sent into the Schools’ Office, in any form from rough notes to detailed instructions or powerpoints, and we will put them up in a usable fashion for others to share.
Cyclone Gabrielle – Prayers for affected schools
Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand on the 12th of February 2023. The cyclone caused widespread destruction in the North Island of New Zealand, particularly in the Hawke’s Bay. A number of Anglican Schools in the region have been affected. Below are prayers you might like to include in your daily prayer schedule prepared especially for the…
Peace
Our young people are, in general, far more aware of world events than previous generations were at their age. That means that when things become unsettled in the USA… or Middle East… or Uganda… we may need to pay attention to them in our chapel services. There are a number of resources on our “4th…
Advent Resources
September may seem early to be thinking of Advent, but once Term 4 starts it will arrive fast! Here are a selection of resources, shared by chaplains here and in Australia, to help you get started. An advent wreath is a beautiful, symbolic way of developing the sense of waiting and expectation. Gillian Townsley has…
Lament
There will be times in every school life when lament is the right and appropriate way to approach God, in prayer and in worship. Below, Malcolm Gordon helps us to understand what Lament is, and provides us with a kete of resources to explore it ourselves. “Lament is actually already part of your life. It…
The Golden Rule
One verse in the Bible which is still widely known (even if it is often misquoted) is our “Golden Rule”: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” Richard Browning, from the Schools’ Office in Brisbane, has put together a full term of chapel services exploring this “Rule” from numerous…
Beauty will Save the World.
Our Office has had a long connection with the Anglican Schools’ Office in Brisbane Diocese, and in recent months we’ve been sharing many more of our resources in both directions across the Tasman. The Rev’d Richard Browning has recently moved into the role previously held by Stephen Harrison, whom some of you met when he…
Matariki
Matariki is coming up on July 13th, 2020. There are heaps of excellent resources on the Strandz website to get you started, including this introduction: Matariki is celebrated every winter when the seven-star constellation, ‘Matariki’ (also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters) appears in the dawn sky. The dates for Matariki change every year…
Thanksgiving and Remembrance
At the centre of our Gospel is the news that death has been conquered, that the love of God has reached even into that darkness to bring God’s light. That can never take away the grief of being parted from someone we love, but it can fill that grief with hope. A particular gift we…
A Garden Paschal Candle Chapel
The years 7 and 8 are moving slowly back into general school life at St Hilda’s College in Dunedin. For two weeks first they are staying at the Theological College wing of Knox College and immersing themselves in learning about WW1, complete with learning a range of skills pertinent to that time: how to cross-stitch,…
When your chapel is a hall or gym
Our colleagues in Australia have been sharing ideas on their facebook page for how to turn a big space like an assembly hall into a chapel space. I know many of you in A-NZ-P are in the same boat, with chapels which are too small for your school (or no separate chapel building at all)….
