Here's a resource I've been using in schools and churches and in training sessions for a few years now. I can't remember where I fist saw this but many thanks to whoever first thought it up. I've added some of my own actions to replace those I've forgotten. It's been used in schools where there are more than 50 native languages, with KS1 children who find the vocabulary difficult to access and with a number of schools who have asked for help in teaching prayer. I've used it in Sunday worship, informal church and in work with leadership groups. It brings a different dimension to a prayer that has brought security, comfort, vision and perspective for centuries. Try it out, see if it works for you, think about making up your own actions or work with a school council or worship team to create your own interpretation.
Thomas Buxton Changing culture - these words are buzzing around our Diocese at the moment. You hear them in safeguarding and in senior leadership meetings and they offer an intriguing insight into where we might go and perhaps how we might go. This morning I met with the good people of St Andrew’s Earls Colne for their Harvest Service. After taking their service I was given a little booklet on the history of the church. This often happens, but rarely have I read one that was so interesting. It’s here that I read an article about Quaint, Honest Abraham, a memorial to an Earls Colne gamekeeper. Abraham Plaistow was known to be of humble station, quaint, honest, simple-hearted and "to all our village dear". The Buxton family, together with young son Thomas, moved to Earls Colne in the late eighteenth century. Young Thomas was known as “daring, violent and domineering of temper” and he fell under the influence of Abraham, eventually becoming a reformed character.