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.
God’s Earth, Our Home
In April this year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. We are all well aware of the importance of our fifth “Mark of Mission” for our world, but also to our students. The Anglican Social Justice commission have re-worked a series of talks from Rowan Williams and study guides put together by a…
Anzac Day
Over the 35 or so years I remember celebrating Anzac Day, it has gone from being a day young people were a bit embarrassed about and middle-aged people were cynical about, to a day almost universally honoured as a chance to acknowledge the sacrifices thousands of New Zealanders made and continue to make in our…
Easter Day
The point of it all. The greatest celebration in our Christian year. The day when we remember that the thing that has always haunted humanity – the inevitability of death – has been transformed by Christ into a doorway to Life. This is the ultimate Good News! When we first began thinking about the Middle…
Palm Sunday and Holy Week
“Engage Worship” is a website worth checking regularly. This year they have a range of resources up for Palm Sunday and Holy Week that could be used in online services, or in the home. They include videos of songs specific to the theme of each day, interactive readings, prayer stations, illustrated or visual readings, and…
Vote for a Saint
While “Lent Madness” is a USA thing, there’s no reason we can’t do our own versions here. Lent is a great time to let the stories of our ancient and modern saints inspire our students – or, at the very least, interest them! At Samuel Marsden Karori, Sarah is giving the girls 3 saints a…
Karakia
The Diocese of Dunedin has put together a handy little page of karakia for those who are wanting to start with the basics. Each karakia is written out, with links to audio files where you can hear it read aloud. There are karakia for starting a lesson or hui; karakia of blessing; the sign of…
Lent, Holy Week and Easter
I’m starting this resource in reverse, beginning with Holy Week and moving back to Lent, because I want to highlight the wonderful set of liturgies Ben Truman has shared with us. At St Mark’s they have a short service every day of Holy Week, and Ben has sent the complete set as a powerpoint for…
Marianne Williams
A great-great-granddaughter of Henry and Marianne Williams, Caroline Fitzgerald, is putting together a beautiful website of information particularly on Marianne. Although she’s designing it to supplement the NZ history curriculum, there is much on it which could be used in chapel services (and RE/RI lessons). Caroline explains: The focus of Admiral’s Dog is to produce…
Easter
While you’re not going to want to use videos instead of messages on a regular basis in chapel, there are a number that can be used to complement a message or give stimulus for discussion and feedback during a service. One that would work well in that way is this: What did they get right?…
Lent Madness!
If you’re looking for an unusual way of celebrating Lent and helping students learn about saints at the same time, have a look at Lent Madness. Started in 2010, this is a slightly crazy, sports-competition-inspired annual journey to voting a saint in to win the Golden Halo for the year. In the organisers’ words: The…
