The sixth word
To celebrate creativity and the fact that God has made us to create together.
by Gordon and Ronni Lamont
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To celebrate creativity and the fact that God has made us to create together.
Note: The title comes from the word 'created' - it's the sixth word in the Good News Bible. If your version is different, rename the assembly accordingly!
Preparation and materials
- You may find it useful to have a Bible to hand.
Assembly
- Ask if anyone knows who the first person in the Bible is. You might get God, Adam or Eve. Explain that they're all wrong - it's Chap One! Omit this 'joke' if it's too terrible to use.
Explain that you're going to read from the very beginning of the Bible. If appropriate, describe the Bible and the Old Testament briefly, pointing out that it's a special book for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Read Genesis 1.1 and ask the children to listen carefully. Say that there are some very important words in this tiny half-sentence. 'In the beginning, when God created the universe'. - Split the assembly into groups (8 would be right for the Good News Bible version), and give each group one word from the reading:
In
the
beginning,
when
God
created
the
universe
Then play with the words - you conduct the different groups to say their word in turn. Start by putting them all in order, then jumble them up, ending with overlapping words. You'll need to set some group rules for this in advance - the children should watch you carefully, and you'll indicate by conducting who is to speak and at what volume.
Play around with this for a while to produce a choral poem based on the words. - Explain that you've just made a choral poem together. Everyone's been involved in creating it. Point out that right at the beginning of the Bible, God created things. It's the first thing God did - it doesn't say: 'In the beginning God woke up and made a cup of tea', or 'In the beginning God did a SATS test', or 'In the beginning God watched telly'.
According to the Bible, the first thing God did was make something, create something - in fact it was the universe, so there was probably a need to watch a bit of telly afterwards… - Ask the children if they will be Godlike today - what will they create?
Time for reflection
Dear God,
In the beginning you created things.
Thank you that you made us to create things.
Help us all to use our creative talents,
to discover what they are,
to grow them and to develop new talents.
Amen.
Song/music
'Let's sing and dance' (Come and Praise Beginning, 58)
Acknowledgements
Scriptures quoted from the Good News Bible published by The Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.
