by Liz Firth, Commission Member
The challenge of how to engage children in a meaningful way during the Children’s Liturgy is one which is faced by volunteers in parishes everywhere on a weekly basis, often on a Saturday evening when you suddenly wonder the week has gone and what on earth to do with the children the following day!
At St Mary and St Monica’s Church in Cottingley in Bradford, as the volunteers who lead the small group, we wanted to give space for the children to be able to respond to Laudato Si and the call for us to care for our common home.
The resources provided by CAFOD provide great inspiration for the children and support for the adults too. Over several weeks, the children explored their ideas about what they wanted to celebrate about God’s creation, the things they love about nature and how they enjoy our world. We also shared what we know are some of the threats and came up with ideas of how we can all take steps to look after our beautiful planet.
We captured our work in a collage depicting a scene from a place we’d love to visit and added in some of our favourite animals from all around the world (and some from our imaginations, or perhaps they just haven’t been discovered yet!) and some of the plants we all need to survive. Lastly the group created some prayers for us and the Parish to share.
We were delighted when the Parish received a visit from Angela Powell, CAFOD’s Community Participation Coordinator. Angela met some of the children from our Children’s Liturgy group and thought the collage and prayers were great. We particularly appreciated the cake that was shared to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si!
We’ll be taking a break over the summer, but when we return, we’ll be looking again for ideas of how we can continue to develop the love and care in our children for our world. We find that the Season of Creation provides a great opportunity to explore the challenge and call to us all which is laid out for us in Laudato Si.
The Season of Creation runs from 1 September (World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation) to 4 October (the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) each year.
This ecumenical season is dedicated to prayer and action for the protection of creation. You can find more information on the Season of Creation here https://seasonofcreation.org/ and CAFOD again have some great resources available here https://cafod.org.uk/pray/season-of-creation.