Let's Celebrate!

By Annette Osborne -
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The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By Annette Osborne -
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What a beautiful poem to read this Christmas, (despite the fact we don't know that there were three wise kings, nor do we know their names). This would make a great addition to an All-Age service, or as part of a church service during Advent. Find someone in your congregation with a great reading voice. You might even like to have them sit in a comfy arm chair with a lamp for light.  For extra drama, soak a little frankincense or myrrh oil onto cotton-wool balls and pass these out before you read the poem. Let people smell the spice of the wise kings gifts, as they listen to the poem, and take home the cotton-wool ball as a reminder.  The Three Kings  By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they travelled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star. And when they came to Jerusalem, Herod the Great...
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12. Jesus has his first visitors.

By Annette Osborne -
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When a new baby is born, everyone wants to visit. People bring gifts and they take photographs. When Jesus was a baby some of the first visitors to meet him were these young guys who looked after sheep for a living. Some of them stayed in the fields to make sure the sheep we re okay, and a group of them travellled into Bethlehem to find this baby that the angels told them about.  This is a photograph of a painting of the shepherds. In this photograph the shepherd is an older man. Can you see how he carries the little lamb safe on his shoulders? They would have been a bit smelly. They lived out in the fields, with sheep for company. No showers, no soap and probably no change of clothes. But that doesn’t matter to God. You see, the Christmas story is full of people who weren’t famous or grea t leaders or seen as important. That’s what make it so amazing. God sent angels to tell the shepherds about the saviour of the world. Not Herod, not Augustus. Shepherds.  Do yo...
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An Aotearoa Advent Circle

By Annette Osborne -
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An Aotearoa Advent Circle: Written by Liz Eichler, thanks to Adrienne Thompson for this resource idea. The Aotearoa Advent Circle is an arrangement made of shell necklaces and paua shells with five candles, four around the circle and one in the centre. It’s inspired by the traditional Advent Wreath, which was invented in Germany by a village pastor helping his flock to count down the days to Christmas. In Europe the Forest was the place of adventure, quest and danger. The evergreen branches of pine trees symbolised the faithfulness of God’s love and the candles showed the light of Christ. But we live in Aotearoa, it’s summer time, everything is green, and using traditional pine branches in an Advent wreath seems a little odd. So, here is an Advent circle instead, with symbols drawn from the Ocean instead of the Forest. This is how you can interpret it.  The circle reminds us of God. A circle has no beginning or end, neither has God. God is for ever.  The shells remind us of ...
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