Our Chaplain’s first liturgy – Mission

Junior chaplaincy team 

Our 12 Junior chaplains led their first liturgy to the Year 5 & 6 chaplains this week on the theme of their mission in their new role.  

The chaplains got the children to sit in the shape of an arrow because a mission is about being sent forth to do good. On the prayer focus, arrows pointed in all directions and the children were given arrows as they entered the hall to write on during the response. 

 The chaplains explained that their mission is to contribute to the school’s life in faith by leading the community in prayer, worship and the Catholic mission of service. One way that they do that is to lead liturgies like they did today, and also their lunchtime clubs they are running. The children were reminded about these opportunities for prayer and invited to come along: Rosary club during the month of October on Monday lunchtimes and Lectio Divina club every Wednesday lunchtime. The chaplains introduced themselves so that everyone knows who they are and can speak to them about coming to the worship clubs or ask for support with their faith.  

We heard the word of God from Matthew’s Gospel which was read by Lilly and acted out by Amadis, Caitlin, Yvo, Lewis and Lena. The scripture was about how Jesus sent out His disciples to baptise people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  

David explained why this piece of scripture was chosen: it is God giving us our clear mission – to bring people closer to God by teaching them about Christ. 

The children then heard a quote that Debria chose to put into the liturgy: Cardinal John Henry Newman’s quote about having a definite service from God. Debria had remembered this from her Year 5 RE lessons and thought it fitted nicely with the theme of mission. She asked the children to reflect on the scripture and Cardinal Newman’s quote by thinking about what their own personal mission from God could be. We played quite music while the children wrote their reflections down on their arrow shapes. 

The mission from the liturgy was to tell others that God loves you no matter what you think your mission might be, because we all have been given one mission from Christ. We finished the liturgy in the style of mass: Go in peace to Love and Serve the Lord. Thanks be to God. We did this because the end of mass is about being sent forth, and so is the theme of this week’s liturgy! 

Two chaplains from last year’s team, Daisy and Isobel, evaluated the liturgy for leadership and engagement. They both agreed that the leadership from the new chaplains was very good: they were clear and the theme of the liturgy was talked about throughout. They also commented that when the chaplains taught the children a song with actions, ‘Go out in the World’, the engagement from the children was very high. They noticed that, at times, some children at the back of the liturgy did not hear the response instructions, and so their engagement was a little lower at this point in the worship. From this evaluation, the next step was decided that the chaplains need to project their voices more so that everyone in the liturgy knows what they are doing at each stage, and this will maintain high-engagement throughout. 

Mrs Ambler commented: 

Our Infant liturgy:

On Wednesday, our six newly commissioned infant chaplains led their first liturgy about ‘Mission’ to EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2. They gathered everyone together in song by singing the hymn ‘Gather Gather’. It was wonderful to hear everyone on the infant site join in with the words and the actions to this hymn. A joyful start to the liturgy. 
The chaplains went onto explain that everyone is welcome in God’s family; that we all belong to this family and that we have all got a mission to live out what Jesus tells us to do. 
We heard the word from Matthew’s Gospel which tells of Jesus telling his disciples to make disciples of all nations and asking them to obey everything that he commanded. 
The chaplains wanted the infants to think about how they could live out their mission in school by thinking about our school mission statement. Some quiet reflection allowed the children to think in their hearts and minds about how they would live out their mission. 
Each class was asked to go forth and decide together what they would do this year to live out their mission in school. 
The liturgy ended with all children leaving to ‘Go out in the world’. 
After the liturgy, Charlotte and Essie commented on the liturgy. Essie said ” I felt really happy. I loved the singing.” Charlotte said “I was really happy and calm because the music was nice and I got to see Maya our chaplain.” 
The infant chaplains are looking forward to their next liturgy; the Harvest Liturgy.