This week our worship is on William Shakespeare, his birthday is on 23rd April so what better way to mark it than with a worship?

 

Here’s a quick quiz to get things started:

 

 

 

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His date of birth is traditionally observed on 23 April. He was the third of eight children, and the eldest surviving son.

 

At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, six months after the marriage Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, baptised 26 May 1583.  Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596.

 

It is not known definitively when Shakespeare began writing, but records show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. By then, he was sufficiently known in London to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene in his Groats-Worth of Wit : “there is an upstart crow”. Scholars differ on the exact meaning of Greene's words but most agree that Greene was accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match such university-educated writers as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, and Greene himself (the so-called "University Wits").

 

Despite this criticism and lack of support, William Shakespeare produced many wonderful plays and poems and is now considered one of the greatest writers of all time.

 

Shakespeare had to show great resilience in a number of ways to become a successful writer:

 

• - The London actors and writers thought he was below their class and didn’t deserve to be there.
• - He had a young family to support and needed to be successful to look after them.
• - He had to recover from the death of his young son to continue writing.
• - He was a young man who had to adapt to life in a new city without friends and family

 

This just shows that we all need resilience to believe in ourselves and become the people we want to be. Everyone experiences tough times but if we show strength and resilience we will get there in the end.

 

Shakespeare mini-biography:

 

 

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Please help us to show resilience when we are tested.
Help us to show strength and belief when needed.
Allow us to use William Shakespeare’s example to become the people we want to be.
Amen

 

This week our worship is written by Amelia Asare and Anwen Lewis. They are both students in year 7 and active members of the Eco-Club.

 

Plastic or Alternative?

We are going to start with a quiz. 

 

Do you know how long it takes for different items to decompose?

 

 

So plastic bottles can take from 450-1000 years to completely decompose! That means that if King Henry II had drunk Juice Burst and the bottle had blown into the Avon, it could still be around today. It also means that the plastic bottle that you threw away last week will sit in landfill until 2519!

It may seem unbelievable, but it is true. However, a plastic alternative would only take 3-6 months.

Our ALIVE value this week is ‘I am Resilient’. This means that you are not broken down when things are not great. You could argue that plastic bottles are resilient because they survive in all sorts of conditions for a very long time.

We need to be resilient when we think about our environment. So here are some things that you could do:

1. Use re-usable metal straws instead of plastic straws
2. Always use ‘Bags for Life’ when shopping
3. Don’t drop litter – use the plastic recycling bins around school
4. Help to keep our school tidy but getting involved in ‘litter-picks’
5. Use a re-usable water bottle for drinking throughout the door
6. Re-use the bottles you buy in the canteen for water – don’t just throw them away
7. Find another use for any plastic waste – be creative

Take some time to talk to the person next to you about what you will do to help reduce the amount of plastic waste. You might choose something from the list or come up with your own idea. Watching this film clip might help you.

 

 

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
Please help us to help and care for our environment.
Help us to do things that will help our world in a positive way.
Please keep all the wildlife and marine life safe.
Amen

 

 

 

 

 

Last Thursday Year 7 spent the day learning about the partnership with Ikoba School in Uganda. In the Eucharist they wrote prayers on the post-it notes above. But why do we pray? What does prayer do?

Make one end of the room ‘agree’ and the other ‘disagree.’ When you hear these following statements about prayer, place yourself somewhere on the spectrum.

Prayer changes us more than God
Prayer can make miracles happen
Prayer must be done out loud
Prayer is therapeutic
Prayer should always be for others
Prayer changes God’s mind

I see prayer as relationship. Which means listening to, talking to, and being with God. Sometimes I talk to God about myself and sometimes I talk about other situations and people. Here is a prayer I wrote about our city Bristol recently, it came out as a poem.

My prayer

 

What’s your prayer for Bristol? The world?

Jesus said to his disciples; Matthew 6:7 (CEV)

When you pray, don’t talk on and on as people do who don’t know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. 8 Don’t be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask.
Jesus then said, you should pray like this.

Our Father in heaven,
help us to honor
your name.
10 Come and set up
your kingdom,
so that everyone on earth
will obey you,
as you are obeyed
in heaven.
11 Give us our food for today.[b]
12 Forgive us for doing wrong,
as we forgive others.
13 Keep us from being tempted
and protect us from evil.[c]

 

 

 

 

What do you think about when someone says, ‘Let us pray’? Or when someone asks you to pray? You may have certain expectations about how you should pray. Watch this film clip:

It is interesting how many of our ideas about prayer come from when we are children and taught how to pray. But actually… how many of them are true?

Jesus prayed. His prayers were not really long, we don’t know whether he closed his eyes or knelt down. He didn’t end each prayer with an Amen! In fact, the Lord’s Prayer – the most famous prayer in the Bible doesn’t end with Amen!

During this season of Lent, we are thinking about how Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross. Before he was crucified, he prayed a lot! Some of the best prayers that people have prayed over the years are not long with big words, but actually short and from a heart that is really crying out to God.

Watch this clip and think about what prayer is really about:



We are now going to have some time to pray. If you want to write a prayer down, ask for some paper. You can close your eyes, or keep them open. It doesn’t matter, but use this time to connect with God.

What are you desperate for God to do? It might be a situation in your family or in your friendship group. You might be concerned about a local issue in the community or maybe a national issue. Maybe you are stressed about exams and revision.

God sees your heart and hears the words before you say them.

Prayer is making the time to tell God about these issues. Please use this next piece of music to reflect quietly and pray. It might help to close your eyes so that you are not distracted, but you don’t have to!

 

 

When we think about the subject of justice and respect, it's good to think, what makes you angry or upset in the news?

 

 

For me, it has been been the increasing number of deaths as a result of knife crime.

With your tutor's permission, get your phones out and do some research.

Do you know how many people lost their lives to knife crime this year? How many does that work out a day?

Sometimes these stats and figures can be overwhelming, but this affects individuals, including people in this school. Have a listen to this story and reflect on how it makes you feel.

 

So what now? Can our school make any sort of difference? Can the Government do anything?

To quote the wisdom of Divine, a year 11 student, 'Let us be be peace makers not trouble makers'.

 

Prayer:

God of Shalom. May Peace begins in our heart and moves outward. If we’re not at peace within ourselves, conflict will find its way into our daily interactions with others. If our families and neighborhoods are not at peace, turmoil in our cities will spread. This lent helps us to fast negativity and hatred and to, make a commitment to focus on peace through prayer, through meditation, through working for justice. In Jesus' name.

Amen