Christmas
AGE: Secondary |
THEME: Christmas |
PREPARATION: |
| Suggested visual aid: a real Christmas tree heavily decorated with
presents at the base for Children in Need. This collective worship could be used as the basis for a carol service. |
DEVELOPMENT: |
|
It probably won't be a white Christmas - but that all depends on where
you live. There's so much to do! Decorating the tree, sending the cards, buying all the food and drink. The postman is busy delivering all those cards - and then there's all those presents we receive. Suddenly, no sooner is Christmas here than it's gone. It's a special time because we remember the birth of Jesus Christ. We give each other gifts because we remember that God gave Jesus Christ as a gift to the world. It's a shame that it seems to go so quickly. Sometimes it seems as if it's over the day after Boxing Day - or at least the day after New Year's Day. People used to have a much longer feast. It didn't really start until Christmas Eve but then it went on for a good twelve days, until 6th January. That's when many people take their decorations down today. But some people now keep the festivities going until the Feast of the Presentation, the 2nd February. That's the day when we remember Mary and Joseph taking the Christ child to the Temple in Jerusalem and there meeting old Simeon, who told them what an amazing man Jesus was going to be. So this year let's remember that the Presentation is properly the end of the Christmas season. It was such a special birth that it's good to celebrate it for as long as we can! |
READING: |
| Luke 2: 25-32 |
PRAYER: |
Lord, |
MUSIC: |
| Choose a selection of Christmas carols to play at the beginning and end. If you want some more quiet, reflective music, the 'Sinfonia' at the beginning of the second part of Bach's Christmas Oratorio would be suitable. For a rousing atmosphere, try the 'Hallelujah' or 'Glory to God' choruses from Handel's Messiah. |