Prepare some coloured paper people, several per colour and write names on them as follows: Orange: the first disciples, St Paul etc
Yellow: early/mediaval saints
Green: reformation and modern saints
Blue: ‘those who have influenced us or shared the faith with us’ – may be generic or left blank
Purple: blank (you need as many of these as there are people in the congregation)
Pink or brown or grey: blank (again, as many as there are in the congregation, with some spares)Write the names on the people and hide them round the church before the service.During the sermon, send children out to gather one colour at a time, and bring them forward – pin them or stick them to a display at the front of the church (in the form of a rainbow, or just round the edge of the display area so you can put the purple ones in the middle, or round the pillars, or whatever works in your building).
For each colour, talk about some of the characters and what they did to share the love of God. For the blue ones you may have things like ‘mum’ or ‘grandad’ or ‘godparents’ or ‘teacher’ or you could leave those blank and ask for suggestions, writing them on at the time.
When it gets to the purple ones, get the children to give them out to everyone so that they can write their own names on, and then bring them forward to be added to the display. You might like to put the purple ones all together in the middle, with the ‘saints’ around them (like the great cloud of witnesses).
You can also have an extra set of people (also blank – maybe pink or brown or grey) that are ‘those who are get to come’ – the next generation, people who don’t know God yet, people we might invite to church. These people are to be taken home by the congregation (they don’t need to have names on them) to remind them to share the love of God with everyone they meet, because that’s what saints do.
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