Tuesday 23rd July, years 3-5 visited St Mary's church, a short walk from our school for our final Act of Worship of this academic year.  It was the newly inducted Reverend Heather's first year end Act of Worship with us.  Our core value of "One Family" is what we spent our time considering, both the children's initial ideas, what the apostle - Paul - said to the Roman Christians about how the Christians there were to get along together from chapter 11 sentences 9-18 of the book "Romans":

^"9 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil, and hold on to what is good. ¹⁰ Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves. ¹¹ Do not be lazy but work hard, serving the Lord with all your heart. ¹² Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all times. ¹³ Share with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers in need into your homes.

¹⁴ Wish good for those who harm you; wish them well and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Be happy with those who are happy, and be sad with those who are sad. ¹⁶ Live in peace with each other. Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Do not think how smart you are.

¹⁷ If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. ¹⁸ Do your best to live in peace with everyone. "

The children were also able to provide examples of people who have lived similar lives to that described above, their answers include Martin Luther King, Nelson Madela and one child said the teachers, which was very special to hear.  Heather then shared the details of the inspirational Jean Vanier (more details here - Wikipedia link).

Then we prayed and the prayers were led by the children of year 5 (see below).

Our Father God,

Thank you for the all the good things we have done and learnt this year and the opportunities we have had to make new friends and get to know better our old friends.

Sorry for the times we have turned against you and lived the way we want.

This Summer and into our new year at school, please help us to represent our values even when things are difficult and challenging, give us your strength we pray.

In Jesus’s name,

Amen 

Dear God,

Thank you for providing us with strength and courage to get through this past school year and thank you for keeping our school a loving community.

We are sorry if sometimes we don’t always show love to others in the way that we should. We are also sorry if we don’t show love to ourselves like we know we should.

Please Help us to remember our past and look forward to our future. Also please help us to reflect on this term and the encouragement we were given to try our best. 

We hope that you guide us through our next school year.

Amen.

Dear God

Thank you for all of the opportunities we have had throughout the year and for our lovely teachers who have helped us learn lots of new and fun things.

Please help us as we move into new year groups to show our school values with our new teachers and make the most of what we have ahead of us.

Amen