Creed

Candles

We place three white felt circles on the floor - for God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Different candles are placed on each circle. A candle in a candle holder is for God the Creator whose light diffuses throughout the world; a tall candle is for the Christ candle; and small tea lights are for the Holy Spirit, symbolising the light of the spirit that is in each of us.

We use a simple responsorial creed; while the words are spoken the children are helped to light the candles. There is a pause after each response while the next candle or candles are lit.

At the end the leader says: "Now we are going to put out the candles but as we do so we are reminded that just as the smoke goes out into the room, so the light of Jesus goes out into the world."

Ring around the church

This was used at our 750th anniversary service.

One of the congregation carried our large wooden cross and led the congregation out of the church and around the building until we had a ring around the church.

A small globe was then passed from one person to another with the words "We believe in God the Creator".

This was followed by a cross "We believe in Jesus, our saviour" and finally a dove with the words "We believe in the Holy Spirit the encourager."

We were not sure how well this would work, and it did take a while for everyone to get into place (we had a congregation of about 120) and for the symbols to be passed around the ring.

However many of the people who spoke to us afterwards said how meaningful they had found it.

Phtographs courtesy of Roger Gurner

Lights on the cross

We placed our wooden cross flat on the tiled floor and asked people to place a night light on the cross. When these had all been lit, we used a simple responsorial creed.

As it was Pentecost our original intention was to do this outside as a symbol of the need to take the good news of Jesus out into the world. Unfortunately, although it was a relatively calm day, the wind blew every time we tried to light the candles...