Lent with Kids 2012

It's a week until Lent and I've been thinking about how we could mark it as a family and as a Sunday school group at God Squad.

I like to use the visual; it captures kids' imagination as well as my own and allows for the building of a picture.  So I've read the gospel readings for this year and done some thinking about what overarching themes carry through.

Crosses seem to be a great way of connecting the lent gospel readings and then joining them to Easter.  It's something the children can experience and take part in and which can be shared with the whole church if they wish.

I checked with trusted sources that I wasn't going do-lally ( I take my care of these kids' spirituality extremely seriously and don't want to bring any dodgy theology into the mix) and was thrilled to find the cross theme being proposed by Worshipping with Children.

Here's my plan so far; it will of course adapt or maybe change, but it's my starting point.   I hope to create the appropriate cross each week and have it in church for everyone to reflect with.  I'll blog my ongoing thoughts and experiences over the following weeks.

RCL Year B

Ash Wednesday - burning palm crosses - torn cross

Lent 1 - Mark 1:9-15 - baptism and good news - cross floating on water

Lent 2 - Mark 8:31-38 - disciples - net cross

Lent 3 - John 2:13-22 - emptying the temple - plain wooden cross

Lent 4 - John 3:14-21 - come to the light -  cross of lights

Lent 5 - John 12:20-33 - through death will be life - cross of people

Palm Sunday - Mark 11:1-11 - palm crosses

Good Friday - John 18:1-19:42 - crucifix

Easter Day - Mark 16:1-8 - empty cross of gold with purple

The last three crafts were completed and documented in this post on the blog in 2015