St Peter’s worship service for Puanga

Contributed by Rev Luca Duckworth, Priest, St Peter’s Anglican Church, Whanganui.

For Puanga this year, St Peter’s Anglican Church Whanganui created a worship service for all ages which was reflective and interactive, weaving elements of Creation Care into the liturgical flow of the service.  Rev Luca Duckworth describes how they set up the space:

Our service used a liturgy to take us on a journey of reflection. We had space to remember those who had passed, and a space to offer thankfulness for the year gone. Instead of a sermon, we split into kēmu/mahi toi (games/art), confession and reflection stations.  People were invited to move around the stations at their own pace. It was important we were all in the space together – so the reflection was not silent reflection! Some of us sat in pairs and shared answers to the reflection prompts and others moved around the stations.

This station invited people to play ruru (similar to knucklebones), whai (a string game) or mū tōrere (similar to checkers) Sea glass used in mū tōrere was collected from Castlecliff beach - we have a stash that often comes out for reflective prayers.

We invited people to make kites using paper shopping bags and feathers. During the kēmu (games) and mahi toi (art) people were encouraged to ask each other to share a goal for the new year.

Taking a piece of ‘rubbish’ we reflected on the times we have used God's gifts carelessly, acted ungratefully, or not cared for the world God has made. We then wrote these ‘sorry’ prayers on our rubbish and offered it to God by nailing it on the cross. We reminded each other that in Jesus we are being made new and invited into new life. The cans were then recycled so they too could have new life. An aluminium can is nearly infinitely recyclable. How much more is God’s forgiveness offered to us!

The service provided opportunity to reflect and connect as we enter this new year. Our liturgies had extra reflection questions people could take away. As always, we finished with a shared meal – breaking out the homegrown lamb for a hākari (feast).