Creative Ideas for... by Simon Rundell

Creative Ideas for Sacramental Worship with Children
Creative Ideas for Alternative Sacramental Worship

After participating in Blessed Worship at Greenbelt (see recent blog posts) I splashed out on these two books by Simon Rundell , the Vicar of Blessed's host Parish.

Considering the price (c.£15) my first reaction on their arrival was one of disappointment as they are slim volumes, however they are in fact packed full of ideas and inspiration and therefore I think they are worth the money overall.

Each one begins with a chapter of "philosophy" by Simon, which while mostly right thinking is often expressed in rather dogmatic terms. Then comes a "how to" chapter, for children on animation and for Alternative on the use of PowerPoint, these are very useful step by step guides linked to the accompanying CDs and a great introduction if you want to dip toe in either water, but they are by their very nature a little dry. Then comes the larger part of each book, the example liturgies and other worship resources.

Simon is very clear that the best worship is not copied out of a book but born out of community and therefore I am sure he would be very please to hear me write that there is very little that I would want to take directly from these books and use as is. Yes there is some I would adapt, some that I take inspiration from, and a significant amount which is an inspiration only to the extent that I absolutely definitely won't be doing it!

There is a serious playfulness within Simon's approach, it is at times hidden by the overblown pontificating - but one of the best quotes captures his true spirit "This anointing can get playful and messy, which is good, simply because good religion is messy and abundant in grace, suymbolised by copious amounts of oil smeared around."  (from the book about Children) And he is using messy in its general sense and not in the sense of the "messy" that has rather become hijacked in the last couple of years as the brand name of a yummy mummy craft based way of doing church.

One of the great truths that I like to push is that we have too much "incranation" and not nearly enough "ascension" as an organisational metaphor within the Church (I can't understand why I don't get much traction with this - maybe I need to get it printed on a T-Shirt?).   These books are all about the ascension, bringing people up, bringing them in to the heart of ritual and worship - for example we shouldn't have Nave Altars but Sanctuary Congregations.  You make a service accessible to children and young people not be stripping things away and simplifying it but by giving them grown up roles within it, by allowing them to sense the vastness of the ideas that are at play - Christianity which is "Bitesized" is dead - God is more than a mouthful...

It has been interesting reading these alongside Rowan Williams "the Lion's World" about C. S. Lewis' writings - in Narnia Lewis gives children a diet of grown up drama, of passion and pain.  He takes seriously the capacity for children to have a rounded encounter with the world and not merely a sanitized version.  In this Simon Rundell, and Blessed, are entirely in step with Lewis.