Harry and Meghan – a Royal Wedding!
Celebrates the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
by Claire Law
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To use the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to consider the significance of sharing in our own lives.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Harry and Meghan - a Royal Wedding!) and the means to display them.
- Have available the YouTube video ‘Harry and Meghan’s carriage procession through the streets of Windsor’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 2.10 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzzmHxurZKY
Assembly
- Have Slide 1 displayed as the children enter the room.
Show Slide 2.
Ask the children to consider which of these two people is having a better time on their birthday and why that might be.
Listen to a range of responses. - Point out that the woman in the picture on the left has a WHOLE birthday cake to herself! Ask the children if they would like that.
Point out that the man in the picture on the right will be sharing his cake with other people. He will get less cake to eat compared to the woman. However, he will get the pleasure of sharing his cake and his birthday party with other people. Sharing can give us great pleasure. - Ask the children if they can think of anyone famous who has just got married.
Listen to a range of responses. - Explain that on Saturday 19 May 2018, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were married. Marriage is a very special example of sharing. By getting married, Harry and Meghan have made a promise that they are going to share their lives together. What a promise! That is definitely worth a party and some cake.
- Let’s take a look at some of the wedding pictures to see how Prince Harry and Meghan celebrated this promise.
Show Slide 3.
This is Meghan in her very special wedding dress. - Show Slide 4.
This is Meghan showing the long train on her dress, just before she entered the church. - Show Slides 5 and 6.
This is St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, where Prince Harry and Meghan promised to share their lives together. They shared this moment with 600 guests, plus millions of people around the world who watched the wedding on TV. - After the ceremony, Prince Harry and Meghan travelled by carriage from St George’s Chapel through the streets of Windsor, before returning to Windsor Castle. This enabled the many well-wishers to catch a glimpse of the newly married couple.
Show the YouTube video ‘Harry and Meghan’s carriage procession through the streets of Windsor’. - Show Slide 7.
This is the cake that Prince Harry and Meghan shared with their guests. What a cake! A lemon and elderflower cake covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers. Yum! - The flowers that decorated the church and the wedding reception were also something that Prince Harry and Meghan wanted to share. After the wedding, these flower arrangements were donated to local charities.
- Wedding guests were asked not to bring any traditional wedding presents. Instead, Prince Harry and Meghan asked guests to share in the celebration by making a donation to one of a number of charities that they support.
Show Slide 8.
These charities include Scotty’s Little Soldiers, which helps bereaved armed forces children; Crisis, a UK-based homelessness charity; and the Myna Mahila Foundation, which supports women in Mumbai’s urban slums.
What a lovely way to ensure that many people get to benefit from this wonderful occasion!
Time for reflection
As we take time to enjoy these photos and the highlights of the wedding, let’s reflect on what Harry and Meghan’s wedding – and in fact, the wedding of any two people – teaches us about sharing.
When two people get married, they make a promise to share their lives together. They promise to share what they have, share their time and join up as a team.
The word ‘wedding’ means ‘joining’ or ‘combining’. Synonyms include ‘uniting’, ‘connecting’ and ‘linking’. A common image found on wedding cakes, cards and decorations is two interlinked rings, which helps to illustrate this meaning.
Show Slide 9.
The traditional promises that are made during a wedding ceremony include the words ‘to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health’. This means that the couple promise to share their lives together through good times and difficult times.
Sometimes, sharing can be difficult. However, as we saw in the picture of the man sharing his birthday cake, it can also bring us happiness. Sharing means that we are not lonely. Sharing means that we learn to be generous people. Sharing helps us to become less selfish and more caring to others. Sharing is caring.
Of course, not everyone gets married. In fact, most of us in this room are not currently married. But we all face situations where we can share. All of us can share in a friendship. To be a good friend, we have to be able to share, at least some of the time.
All of us take part in team activities. For example, when we play for a sports team, take part in PE lessons or carry out group activities in the classroom, we are all involved in sharing. We can’t be good team players if we are selfish, if we keep the ball to ourselves or if we take all the best jobs. To be a good team player, we need to say ‘yes’ to sharing our skills and our time with others.
So, just as Prince Harry and Meghan said ‘I do’ to each other, we also face situations where we have the choice to say ‘I do’ to sharing. It could involve sharing with others our time, our possessions or our talents.
There is something brave and generous about sharing in this way. Sometimes, sharing is hard. People might not share back or say ‘thank you’ when we share. However, making the choice to share is a sign of hope. It is a commitment to building a loving and caring community, and to the belief that we are stronger together.
Let’s pause for a moment to think about the people we will see today with whom we can share.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Let’s think about the things we have that we can share, such as our possessions, our friendship and our time.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear God,
We pray for Prince Harry and Meghan as they begin their married life together.
We pray that they will be blessed with good health and happiness.
We pray that they will have plenty of opportunities to share with each other and with others.
We think about other people we know who are making commitments to one another in marriage:
People who are engaged, planning a wedding or recently married. (If appropriate, insert the names of any staff who are soon to be married or have recently married.)
We pray for the many chances that we have to say ‘I do’ to sharing.
We ask for the courage and generosity to share with other people,
And to say ‘thank you’ when people share with us.
Amen.
