Do you
remember the year Amy our oldest member, then 92, accompanied by the youngest
child in church, carried the baby Jesus to the crib? There wasn’t a dry eye in the
house!
With
falling numbers and less regular attendance, our Sunday School nativity play
was no longer viable. We needed a re-think, so a couple of years ago we
scrapped the play and developed the Crib and Communion Service as a way of
rounding off the term for the children and retaining their involvement in the
main communion service on the last Sunday before Christmas.
All the
children, both Sunday School regulars and visitors, are invited to be
a part of the procession bringing the crib figures forward during the singing
of a suitable carol.
The nativity play costumes are available for those who would like to dress up and members of the Sunday School team sort out costumes, allocate figures, guide the children round the church and receive the figures to place them in the stable.
If there aren’t enough children, then we co-opt the grown ups, some more enthusiastically than others but no one has said no, and once involved they love it too. We use an all-age communion format as the framework for the service, but it could work with any form that is child-friendly.
The nativity play costumes are available for those who would like to dress up and members of the Sunday School team sort out costumes, allocate figures, guide the children round the church and receive the figures to place them in the stable.
If there aren’t enough children, then we co-opt the grown ups, some more enthusiastically than others but no one has said no, and once involved they love it too. We use an all-age communion format as the framework for the service, but it could work with any form that is child-friendly.
This year
it takes place again at The Church of the Holy Rood, Wool on Sunday 23rd
December at 10.00am. For more
information contact Rhona Floate, 01929 462215, vicar@holyroodwool.org
