St George's Paddington

2018 Something New Summary

Something New 2018

In 2018 we took a big look at the story of the bible:

 

February 2018: Dust + Breath
We began with the theme of Dust & Breath, ‘from dust you were made and to dust you shall return’, reflecting on what it means to be a creature with great dignity & frailty, with shadow puppets, pottery & polaroids.
March 2018: Tower Builders
This month we added to the picture reflecting on the very human desire to say “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). We examined where we find value and meaning in our lives as we reflected on the story of the world’s most confusing tower – the Tower of Babel. We constructed cardboard forts, had tower building races and played giant jenga.
April 2018: Stars, Sand and Sons
This month we reflected on the story of Abraham & Sarah and heard of God’s ongoing promise to bless the human race, mulling it all over via a rockstar academy & a DIY Planetarium.
May 2018: Discovering Secrets
This month we transformed the church grounds into an archeological site where we hunted for treasure to uncover the Exodus story, a tale about royalty, murder and freedom. We discovered secrets as we listened to the life of Moses, hearing how God revealed himself and rescued his people (from Exodus 3). And there was afternoon tea, wood etching & decorating and a reflective prayer walk.
In early June we gathered to watch the Prince of Egypt movie.
June 2018: Mid-winter Storytelling
fire
feasting
lamb spit roast
marshmallows
mulled wine
stories
come with your own tale to tell
An event for the whole community
July 2018: Rivers of Justice.
We learnt about Amos, a minor prophet who was a major pain in the neck for God’s people, and we named some of the broken ways of the world (like injustice and poverty) and worked at forming our hearts to love justice, generosity and grace.
We had a powerful simulation game and experienced injustice and we found some ways to do good to our local neighbours.

 

August 18: Choose

After spending the first half of the year in the Old Testament stories of the bible, this week we meet a young Jesus as he comes to get baptised. We hear God say of him – ‘‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). We’ll be exploring the story of Jesus’ choice to follow God with BUBBLES, a FISHING GAME and a CHOOSE YOUR OWN COOKING ADVENTURE.

 

 

 

 

 

September 2018: OCEANS

We joined the morning service to reflect on God’s beautiful creation; delight, wonder, awe, power, majesty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2018: God’s vision for LIFE!
We thought about God’s vision for LIFE. We heard the story of Jesus crying at his friend’s death and then calling Lazarus back to life (from John 11). We created beautiful marbled paper and pondered the strange way that life can be confusingly full of joy and pain. We reflected on the many biblical images of the future God promises beyond death and made mural panels together.

 

 

 

 

November 2018: Christmas

A DIY nativity play, constructing Advent Calendars (that you’ll be able to take home and use to mark the days to Christmas), and plenty of Christmas cheer with afternoon tea & fun as usual.

 

 

 

 

 

Something New started in 2017 exploring the stories of Jesus –

  • Jesus calming the storm
  • Feeding of the Five Thousand (celebrated with pancake art)
  • Healing of the Paralytic (marked with acrobatics)
  • God the Creator (with visit from Snakes and animals)
  • Prodigal Son (with a treasure hunt)
  • Storytelling Event
  • Parables about the preciousness of God’s Kingdom with Plane Tossing competition
  • Jesus walking on water and the Five Ways Olympics
  • Parable of the Sower and Spring Gardening
  • Jesus and Lazarus as we thought about Halloween
  • Advent Play preparations and performance

 

The Nativity Play 2016

The old tradition of the ‘Nativity Play’ has been revived at St George’s! Under Phil Wilcox’s creative leadership and direction a team of young local actors performed a nativity play, including Christmas Carols, in December followed by a courtyard BBQ (hosted by the 6pm congregation)