Praying for Peace Printable Reflective Colouring Sheet

In light of current events in Ukraine, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have asked that Sunday 27th February is used as a day of prayer for peace. Here is a reflective colouring sheet if you like to pray with colour. One version is the image only and the second version is a sheet with the Archbishops' prayer for peace copied at the bottom. 

For the colouring sheet on its own, click here.

For the colouring sheet with the Archbishops' prayer for Peace in Ukraine, click here.

 

Remembrance Sunday Poppy Light

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 and punch lots of holes in it. You might need to fold the paper in certain places so that you can more easily distribute the holes. 

Make the black paper into a tube and tape or glue to secure it.Make sure that the circumference of the tube is big enough to fit over the top of a tea light.

Make a poppy shape by cutting red and black paper. Stick the poppy to the top of the tube.

Switch on the battery operated tea light and place the tube over the top. Switch off the light in the room so that you can see the light shining through the holes in the tube.

Chat about the war and the sadness and grief for those who were lost. Talk about the new life symbolised by the poppies and the fact that death and fighting was not the end for those fields. Link that to the verse from John 1 and look at the light shining into the darkness through the holes in the tube. With Jesus there is always hope and Revelation 21 talks about God's kingdom where there is no more death or violence. What are their hopes for the world and for the places where there is war?

Remembrance Sunday

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

Play dough Prayers for Peace

This is a very tactile and visual way of praying for peace and reconciliation that would work for all ages.

You will need: small blobs of play dough in different colours

Think of and talk about situations where two sides are fighting with each other.  This could be anywhere in the world (e.g. wars) or much closer to home and involve people they know or even themselves.  Talk about God bringing peace and that it is one of our jobs as Christians to pray for peace:

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. (Matthew 5:9)

Ask each child to choose two blobs, each of a different colour.

 Ask children to blend the two colours together to make a new colour.  As they do so, ask them to pray that the two different sides will come together and make peace.

Making Peace: A hands on lesson for 5-11s

As part of our series looking at Holy Communion we spent some time thinking about community, the sign of peace and what it means to make peace with others.  Here's what we did!

Game: stand a stick of spaghetti into a bit of play dough and then thread cheerios onto it.  How many cheerios can you get on the stick in 1 minute? Eat the cheerios and then start again.  This game then leads on to talking about bringing people together as a community, which is what we do in the church family.

Talk about: 

belonging to our own families and to God’s family 

How do you show that you belong to a group?

Everyone is welcome in God’s family and it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done or if you get on with that person!

Think about the part in the liturgy where we say “peace be with you’ and then we reply ‘and also with you’

What does peace mean?

How does it feel if peace is ‘with you’?

What does it mean to make peace?

Why do you think we do this in a communion service?

Activities

• Think about words to do with peace and friendship. Children draw round and cut out their hands and arms.  Decorate them and use them to fill a canvas- reflecting us holding out our hands in peace to others.  Add some of the words you have thought of (see above)
• Doves are a Christian sign of peace.  Make a dove straw rocket and write on the wings people and places who need to know God’s peace.

• ice and decorate biscuits to share after the service as a sign of friendship with everyone

Prayer: write prayers on a giant cross outline (or on a chalk board cross if you have one!) and pray for people you find it difficult to get on with or who need to find peace.  Ask God to help you and to help them.

Flying Dove Peace Prayers

This is a fun and active prayer activity, using the dove as a symbol of peace.

You will need: A straw, the dove shape and paper rectangle cut out of the resource sheet (click here to print), sellotape, pens

Wrap the paper rectangle around the straw (not too tight) and then fold the top of the paper over to make a 'pocket' for the end of the straw.  Make sure that there is a little gap between the fold of the pocket and the end of the straw or your paper will stick to the straw and will not fly when the time comes!

Write or draw prayers for people or places who need God's peace on the front of the dove shape.  Turn the dove over and sellotape the paper pocket to it, as shown in the picture below.  

Turn the dove the right way round, aim it and then blow through the straw.  Watch your peace dove fly as a symbol of giving the prayers to God!

Remembrance Day Assembly: Revelation 21

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 thing but it is not the picture that God really has for the world.  Talk then about Revelation 21:4 where we are told about a world with no more sadness, pain, war or suffering.  This is a place of peace.  What do you think peace feels like?  Looks like?

Look at the dark centre of your poppy.  This is where the seeds are held- planting the seeds brings hope of new life.  We can help to bring about this new life, this vision of peace that God has.  We might think that we are remembering things from a long time ago, but actually this is something that we can be involved in now.

How can we help to bring peace? In our families, in our school, in the world?

Say each line of the following prayer to the children and ask them to sit quietly and watch the bubbles until they pop. Imagine that, as the bubbles pop, peace is coming to that situation and the hard thing is disappearing.  When the last bubble has popped say the next line.

We think of/ pray for all who are angry- bring them peace

We think of/ pray for all who are jealous- bring them peace

We think of/ pray for all who are greedy- bring them peace 

We think of/ pray for all who hate- bring them peace 

We think of/ pray for all who are afraid- bring them peace

Amen

To accompany this assembly, there is a play dough mat using the same verse from Revelation.

Angels and Shepherds Nativity Play Dough Mat

This is the second play dough mat in the Nativity story series I am putting together: Angels and Shepherds!

Print out the mat, laminate it for future uses and get creatively thinking about peace on earth...

Click here to print out the mat.

Remembrance Sunday Reflective Play Dough Mat

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!

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace Prayer Station

You will need:  Dove pictures, pens, paper clips, string

Is there part of your life that makes you feel stressed?  A dove is a sign of peace.

Take a dove shape and write or draw on it the thing that stresses you. 

Pin it to the line as a sign that you are asking God to bring you peace in that area.

Praying for peace with zips!

This coming term our prayer stations are going to focus on interceding for the world.  One of the things I want to look at is praying for peace and reconciliation.  When I was thinking about how to do this, it struck me that zips might be a good idea- they are a great illustration of bringing two sides together!


so..

I plan to leave a list of countries in the world where wars are taking place on the station along with the zips so that the children can choose where to pray for!