Secondary: Current Assemblies

LOOKING FORWARDS AND LOOKING BACKWARDS

By Helen Levesley

Suitable for Key Stage 3/Key Stage 4/Key Stage 5


Aim

To identify the positive in both the past and the future.

Preparation and materials

• You will need an image of the ancient Roman god Janus. See http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Janus&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2 (the recommended one is that from the Vatican).

Assembly

1. What do you see in this picture? The faces of two people? One looking forwards and one looking backwards? This is the Roman god Janus. He was the god of beginnings and endings and his image appeared on gates, doors, doorways.
   
2. Beginnings and endings is the theme for our assembly today. We have just begun a new year, and seen out the old one. No doubt you had a great time! However, beginning something new, and coming to the end of something, can bring us a time for reflection and thinking about what has passed.
   
3. Let’s think about endings. Whether it is the ending of a great film that you really enjoyed, or the end of a cup of tea, or even the end of someone’s life: these are things that we can all associate with. Think about the feelings associated with endings: sadness, disappointment and a sense of deflation.
   
   However, endings can be a good thing too. The end of an exam, the end of a boring lesson; and for some people, death can mean the end of a long and painful illness. Endings are times where we feel that something has changed, and probably will not be the same again. But looking back over what has passed also gives us some sense of evaluation.
   
4. Look back over the year that has just gone – 2008. One that we will never have again (a scary thought in itself). How was it for you? Was it a good year full of fulfilled promise and excitement or was it a really difficult year with many challenges? I guess for most of you there was a mixture of good and bad.
   
   The start of a new year is an excellent chance for us to look back over the year just gone. What could we have done better? How could things have been changed? What could I have done to make things different? We know that we cannot remain in the past – people and things that do that never move on, and are left behind.
   
5. Instead, let us look now to the future, like our double-headed god Janus, whose name incidentally is the reason we are now in the month of January. A time for looking back, and also for looking forward. For we are now standing on the threshold of a new, and exciting year.
   
   Look ahead now to 2009 and all the possibilities and opportunities the year holds. For some of you, your GCSEs, for others going away to university, or major life events such as marriage or having children. There are so many possibilities.
   
   We hold this year in the palm of our hands – we have in our control the things that often cause us regret when we look back: the way we did or did not behave; how we are with others. This new year could, when you look back on it in 2010, be your best year ever. I really hope for us all that it is.

Time for reflection

Prayer

When I look back, allow me to see the positive in my actions

rather than to be sad at what I have left undone.

Let me be able to see where I could have done better,

but also to look back and reflect on what brought me to that place.

As I look forward, allow me to be positive,

to see that the new year is all before me,

and that what I do makes a difference.

Whether it is looking forwards to the future or back to the past,

give me the strength to go on.

Amen.

Song

‘One more step’ (Come and Praise, 47)