YOUTH &CHILDREN NEWS

In this edition:●Bishop John’s

Christmas Cardcompetition

●The ChristmasMystery inPenicuik & WestLinton

●Fischy Music andBring It All To Me

●Peace Pole at StAnne’s Dunbar

●Play and Praynews

●Top tips fromaround theDiocese

Rev Lynsay Downs of Penicuik andWest Linton offered a creative andinspiring all-age Advent experiencethis year. ‘The Christmas Mystery’was held on St Nicholas’ Day, 6th

December, and was partly inspired bythe celebrations Lynsay recalls fromher time in Hungary, and also byJostein Gaarder’s novel The Christ-mas Mystery. The Graham Institute inWest Linton and St James the Less inPenicuik were open for people to dropin and embark on a journey from hereand now to Bethlehem at the time ofJesus’ birth.

Lynsay promised participants, “Wewill travel diagonally through time andspace, meeting characters familiarfrom our nativity stories. Each charac-ter will have an activity for travellers ofall ages to engage with. These activi-ties include craft, storytelling, listeningto music and more. One of the peopleyou will meet is St Nicholas (Santa).He will be giving gifts for the wise men

THE CHRISTMAS MYSTERY -A FAMILY JOURNEY

to bring to baby Jesus and to all trav-elling to witness this wonderful birth.”

I met children from West Linton Pri-mary School who were enjoying fol-lowing a path made of straw, smellingmyrrh, meeting St Nicholas, holdingfrankincense grains and singinground the manger. It was a magicalway to engage everyone in the Christ-mas story: if you would like to find outmore, contact Rev Lynsay -stjandstmrector@icloud.com

BISHOP JOHN’SCHRISTMAS CARDCOMPETITION -WINNER!This year’s winner is Laura Buxel(7) of St Columba’s Bathgate.Bishop John particularly liked thevibrant colours and Laura’s em-phasis on joy! Highly commend-ed: Caitlin Smith (7) Holy Trinity,Melrose; Patrick Parocha (almost9) of Christ Church Morningside.

DIOCESE OF EDINBURGH DECEMBER 2014

The angel, the innkeeper, St Nicholas andMary (with helper) at The Christmas Mystery

Bishop John choosing thewinning Christmas card

Hands up who likes Fischy Music?Everyone who attended their recentall-age training event was in agree-ment! Adults learned all about howto use the new songs and CD re-source, 'Bring It All To Me’, whilethe kids learned the songs and per-formed them - complete with ac-tions - at the showcase concert.

The CD features the songs andbacking tracks, and the accompa-nying DVD and CD-ROM contain awealth of resources. There are vid-eos to teach the signs and actionsfor each song, many of which arebased on British Sign Language.Those who have an aversion to‘action songs’ will be reassured toknow that not all the actions requireleaping about! Many actions arequiet and dignified: they can beperformed sitting down and they

gently aid meditation on the song’smeaning. If you are not confidentabout leading your own congrega-tion or children’s group in song, theDVD lets the Fischy Music team doit for you: there are videos of eachsong being performed, completewith actions, so everyone can sim-ply follow Fischy Music’s lead.There is an image movie to accom-pany each song, which is designedto encourage reflection. Much ofthe artwork in these movies is strik-ingly beautiful and will appeal to allages.

The Fischy Music team membersreally have brought everythingthey’ve got to this brilliant resource.I recommend the ‘Bring It All ToMe’ CD resource pack to anyoneinvolved in Sunday school, MessyChurch or All-Age worship

BRING ITALL TO ME

3-DISC DVDRESOURCE

PACK

THIS RESOURCEFEATURES:● Ten songs for all

ages based on the

emotions expressed

in the Psalms

● Backing tracks for

each song

● Teaching movies and

videos for each song

● Image Movies

● Powerpoint slides

● Downloadable sheet

music (arrangements

for piano and guitar)

● Lyric sheets

● Practical, imaginative

teaching ideas based

on each song

● £40 per pack from

www.fischy.com

FISCHY MUSICALL-AGE TRAININGEVENT & CONCERT

The songs are as singable and memorable as you would expect withFischy Music, and as they are based on the emotions expressed in thePsalms, they explore a range of different feelings. There is upbeat praiseand joyfulness here: ‘E-N-J-O-Y’ has an infectious salsa rhythm that getseveryone on their feet, and ‘Sing a new song’ has us playing not only airguitar but fiddle and drums too. Like the Psalms themselves, these songsare not afraid to voice difficult feelings, either. ‘BIG, BIG questions’ asksGod hard questions such as “Why me?” and finds no easy answers, yetthe chorus strongly affirmsour faith: “We believe You’rethere, we believe You care,we believe You’re not scaredof big, big questions.”  ‘In adeep, deep place' is a haunt-ing piece which cries out toGod when he seems faraway: not many worshipsongs have the courage tostay in such a dark place, butthen the music takes us fromdarkness and difficulty to thejoy of turning back to God,tenderly expressed in ‘Weyour children’ and ‘How weneed you’. The title trackdoes what Fischy Music’ssongs do best: it tells us thetruth about God in a simpleand memorable way. In thissong, God says, “Anythingyou're proud of, anythingyou're not, bring it all, bring itall to me. Everything you'rehiding, everything you've got,bring it all, bring it all to me.”This is proper theology, sungto a lilting melody with a dis-tinctively Scottish flavour.

FISCHY MUSICBRING IT ALL TO MEREVIEW

Order your CD or CD resource pack nowfrom www.fischy.com

Would you like to learnmore about these ancientpathways for prayer? Lab-yrinths are part of theChristian tradition andmany people use them asa bounded space for per-sonal reflection and spirit-ual pilgrimage. Childrenare fascinated by them. DiWilliams is an experi-enced facilitator who has apassion for labyrinths. Shewould be happy to lead aworkshop for us in Edin-burgh Diocese. If youwould like to learn moreabout labyrinths and howto use them in an all-agecontext, please contactme:youthandchildren@dioceseofedinburgh.org

COMINGSOON? IT’S UP

TO YOU!

LABYRINTHWORKSHOPWITH REV DIWILLIAMS

Photo from Di’s website,Still Paths.

The children of Dunbar PrimarySchool have been working withRevd Andrew Bain, the Rectorof St Anne's Church, and Rich-ard Taylor, a local ecumenicalyouth worker, on a project aboutwar and peace. Their schoolstudy of World War Two culmi-nated in the Dedication of thenew Peace Pole at St Anne's, aspart of the worldwide PeacePole project. Children read theirmoving poems about war, thenjoined in prayers for peace ledby Bishop John Armes aroundthe Peace Pole. The words oneach side of the pole read 'Maypeace prevail on Earth' in Eng-lish, Polish, Japanese and Ger-man, reflecting the mostcommonly spoken mothertongues of the children in localschools.

This project tied in very wellwith this year's special Remem-

A PEACE POLE AT STANNE’S DUNBAR

brance activities, marking the hun-dred year anniversary of theoutbreak of the First World War,and the children’s poems aboutpoppies, bombs and trenchesshowed how this part of our histo-ry had captured their imagina-tions.

The Dunbar Peace Pole projectengaged the whole community.East Lothian Council kindly sup-plied the labour and materials forinstalling the Pole, which is situat-ed in a very prominent position,right on the High Street, at a placewhere many people pass it everyday. The children I spoke to saidthat they had enjoyed working onthe project and are looking for-ward to showing the Peace Pole tovisiting relatives over Christmas.And everyone who came to theDedication enjoyed tea and cakein St Anne’s church afterwards!

THE PEACE POLEPROJECT

The Peace Pole Projectwebsite contains more in-formation about thisworldwide project:“A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument thatdisplays the message andprayer “May Peace Prevailon Earth” on each of itsfour or six sides, usuallyin different languages.There are tens of thousandsof Peace Poles in 180 coun-tries all over the world dedi-cated as monuments topeace. They serve as con-stant reminders for us to vi-sualize and pray for worldpeace.When you plant a PeacePole in your community, youare linking with people allover the world who haveplanted Peace Poles in thesame spirit of peace.”

Peaceon Earth

Peace Pole in Bethlehemwww.peacepoleproject.org

The leaders, Claire Starr andSharon Laidlaw, are experi-enced spiritual directors whohave a passion for this project.They plan to lead the first sixsessions, and then the peopleof St Andrew’s will continuePlay & Pray themselves. TheRector, Rev Jim Benton-Evans,says: “Play & Pray has ener-gised and excited our smallcongregation. As a church thathas not had any children forsome years, there has been areal sense of being at thebeginning of God doingsomething extraordinary aswe have seen the numbersslowly grow. And it has givenour congregation the confi-dence to invite people theyknow: it seems to be much eas-ier for them to invite familiesalong to Play and Pray, ratherthan to our normal Sundayservice. We are welcomingpeople into God's church, somefor the first time, and meetingthem on their own terms, ratherthan expecting them to conformto our ideas of what church is orshould be. There is a real mis-siological edge to what we aredoing - and it is very exciting.”

Visit playandpray.net

Claire Benton-Evans

Office: 21a Grosvenor CrescentEdinburghEH12 5EL

Direct line: 0131 346 9081

Email: youthandchildren@dioceseofedinburgh.org

Mobile: 0747 372 8148

YOUTH AND CHILDREN OFFICERCONTACT DETAILS

St Andrew’s Church in Innerleithen has beentransformed on recent Wednesday morningsby the Play & Pray team. Play & Pray is agentle introduction to prayer activities forparents and very small children. The aim isto help families learn about prayer togetherand grow with God while having fun.

Each session begins with a simple actionprayer and a song, then the theme is intro-duced by Basil and Percy, two puppets whotell a story. Children and their parents thenexplore the various prayer stations, whichinclude a story corner, a baby massage ar-ea, a messy space for painting and a rangeof activities such as bubble-blowing or playsand. The session ends with refreshmentsfor children and grown-ups, and a welcomeopportunity to chat.

Invite parents to signup to email updatesabout youth and chil-dren’s activities atyour church!

At Christ Church Morningside,families receive a weekly briefemail update from volunteersabout what’s on. It’s a greatway to maintain regular contactwith people in the midst of hec-tic family life - if they miss aSunday or two, they won’t feel‘out of the loop’ or forgotten.

TOP TIPS FROMAROUND THEDIOCESE

PLAY & PRAY NEWS

STAYING INTOUCH IN 2015

If you have some newsor pictures you’d liketo share, please sendthem to me so that Ican spread the word.It’s great to encourageeach other and shareour bright ideas! Forexample:● Creative prayer ideas● Christmas activities● Sunday school ideasIf sending pictures withchildren in them, pleaseensure that you haveparents’ permission touse photos for churchpublicity purposes.Don’t forget!Like our Facebook page:Edinburgh DioceseYouth and ChildrenFollow us on Twitter:@EdinDioYouth