Origin: Carey College Youth Intensive, Monday 21 April, 1996. Designed and curated by Mike Riddell and Mark Pierson
Theme:
To introduce participants to each other and to focus on the purpose of the week and pray for themselves and others.
Mood:
Setup:
candles, 2x candle holders, candle boards, paint, drop cloth, trays, banner, matches, 3x slide projectors, Bible
Gear:
Running order:
Arrival – silence, 2x candles. Slides – pictures or black?
- Karanga (Call) – Maori woman calls from inside room in darkness.
- Punters enter, given candle each, light on way in
- Words re candles/light and place together on central racks.
Welcome, candle = symbol of Holy Spirit’s illumination, and symbol of knowledge, wisdom and experience you bring together…greater than when alone. Place candles in rack…
- Opening Litany (all stand) Full words projected on 2 slides
Leader: In the beginning, God made the world:
Women: Made it and mothered it,
Men: Shaped it and fathered it,
Women: Filled it with seeds and songs of fertility
Men: Filled it with love and its folk with ability
Leader: All that is green, blue, deep and growing,
All: God’s is the hand that created you
Leader: All that is tender, firm, fragrant and curious
All: God’s is the hand that created you
Leader: All that crawls, flies, swims, walks or is motionless,
All: God’s is the hand that created you
Leader: All that speaks, sings, cries, laughs or keeps silent,
All: God’s is the hand that created you
Leader: All that suffers, lacks, limps, or longs for an end,
All: God’s is the hand that created you
Leader: The world belongs to the Lord
All: The earth and all its people are his
(Source Unknown)
Slides – black on all 3
5. Song ‘The Earth is the Lord’s’, Late Late Service 4: God in the Flesh. Track 9. Sing and move.
Establish clap and stomp rhythm before Track starts.
Slides – Full words, 3 slides
Slides — Crucifix on all.
6. Prayer (All sit or kneel) Response only on slide.
Leader: Let us pray
Before the world began,
When everything was shapeless,
You were there…
Hovering over chaos,
Planning the texture, the taste.
the sight and the sound of things;
Balancing the opposites,
Weaving the rainbow,
Turning the random into the real,
ALL: And for this we praise you (Slide)
Leader: Before we began,
When, in the womb, we were shapeless,
You were there…
Calling us your own,
Planning the nature and novelty in us
Weaning our potentials,
Making us unique,
Turning the random into the real,
ALL: And for this we praise you.
Leader: And even now,
Now when we dream dreams
Or puzzle over the future;
Now, when our ideals are challenged
And the second best becomes attractive,
You are there…
Upsetting our easiness,
Contradicting our compromises,
Replacing our narrow vision
With the sight and sound and taste of a better life,
Picking up the loose stitches of our devotion,
Turning the random into the real,
ALL: And for this we praise you
Leader: And it always will be so.
For you did not say you were the answer,
You said you were the way;
You did not ask us to succeed,
You asked us to be faithful
You did not promise us paradise tomorrow,
You said you would be with us to the end of the world,
Turning the random into the real.
ALL: And for all this we praise you, Now and forever, Amen.
(Source unknown)
7. Groups – Make groups of 5
Round 1 – Introductions – name, colour to describe how you’re feeling
Round 2 – One expectation/hope for the course
8. Responsive
Round 3 – communal response.
Think of one person you know, inside or outside the church.
Read Psalm 139/1-6; 13-16
Taking one group at a time, each person calls out the name of the person on their left, who then calls out the name of the young person they’re focussing on this week; at the end of group’s response all say ‘For those who have been named, we pray O Lord’ (Response on slide). Then do next group.
Slides: 1 Black, 2 Patterns
9. Covenant making.
Read covenant as put painted hand print on banner (1 Slide)
Wash and dry each other’s hands
Track — Sinead O’Connor ‘All Babies’ (Track 10) ex Universal Mother
Covenant:
With my left hand I pledge myself to participating in this community of people for the time we are together. I will open myself to whatever learning experiences come my way, and share that of my own experience that is helpful to others.
With my right hand I remember the young people of our land. I hold their image in my heart as my hand print stays on this sheet. I pray for them and the light of Christ among them, and will seek to give what I have to offer to make it happen.
10. Responsive Prayer. ‘For the Blessing of Communal Study’, Terry C. Falla p 364 Be Our Freedom Lord, Openbook: Adelaide. 1994. modified. On all slides x2.
11. The Grace.
Stand in a circle, join hands, say together. (Place lit candles in racks as leave)
Slides: 1 cross, 2 Black.