Continuing on the theme of schools, church schools in particular, a couple more Grove Booklets, this time about collective worship (assemblies and more).
Tim Elbourne, How to Craft Collective Worship (Grove Booklet, 2016)
Underpinning this booklet is the very simple suggestion that you reflect on and cultivate the craft of leading school worship … (p. 4).
This is best done through observation:
There are no better ways of developing a craft than seeking out the work of an expert and paying close attention to the detail and technique used (p. 26).
Feedback is also helpful:
Sometimes it is good for two worship leaders to work together over the course of a year, offering each other comment and suggestions (p. 27).
Teachers can help ministers and vice versa (p. 6).
The rest of the booklet has lots of helpful comments and hints. Here are a few:
- ‘Collective worship’ is not the same as an ‘assembly’: it ‘need not be for the whole school together’ (p. 8).
- It should be ‘interactive and reflective’ (p. 4).
- There should be an ‘open invitation to participate’ (p. 7), recognising that collective worship is more-or-less compulsory (p. 8).
- Timing is important: ‘A common mistake is to allow an opening activity intended to grab attention to overrun’ (p. 11).
- A helpful structure is: Gathering, Engaging, Responding, Sending (p. 12).
- ‘In good collective worship, the leaders do not remain as the object of the audience’s attention. … Since worship is not just abstract reflection, we can speak of attention to and encounter with God as its intention’ (p. 15).
- ‘If you are a regular visitor or worship leader with the chance to get to know a school well, do not feel pressure to make every act of worship innovative or with a stunningly memorable one-off presentation. There will be a next time!’ (p. 15).
- Give attention to the setting: it can be helpful to mark the shift to an atmosphere of worship in some way (e.g., a candle, p. 15).
- Try to communicate a single thought (p. 18).
- Stories work well (pp. 21-22).
- Opening and closing responses can be helpful (p. 22).
- Silence can work well (p. 23, even if ‘silence’ can include music being played!).
- There are plenty of books of assemblies, as well as online resources (e.g., SPCK’s The Assembiles Website and Christian Aid), but ‘There is no substitute for developing your own style and craft’ (p. 27).
Alison Brown, How to See Collective Worship Anew (Grove Booklet, 2017)
The ‘companion volume’ to the above.
This is a booklet about an approach to collective worship known as Seeing Anew, which was developed by the author, and formed the basis of her doctoral research.
A new approach is needed because ‘it is all too easy for [collective worship] to be little more than moral education … “Be good … because Jesus says so”’ (pp. 3-4).
Collective worship is in danger of conveying Nice-ianity rather than Christ-ianity (p. 8).
Even in one ‘outstanding church school’,
moral education all too easily took over as the main message of collective worship and the person of Jesus was used simply as an example of being good (p. 19).
Without a ‘theological underpinning of the aims and purposes of collective worship’,
there is a danger of any Bible material being reduced again to telling us to be nice (p. 22).
The Seeing Anew approach draws inspiration from James K. A. Smith’s book, Desiring the Kingdom, and his ideas about the formative power of Christian worship. (See my post on the book for the general idea.) The emphasis is on the Christian story (rather than on Christian values), and the idea is to make collective worship more interactive and participatory. It draws ideas from What If Learning, which encourages teachers to make connections between Christian faith and their teaching.
Seeing Anew is no quick fix:
This sort of creative work which engages pupils in a deep and formative way, takes time and huge commitment (p. 20).
Planning and leading creative, stimulating collective worship is time-demanding and there are no easy answers to this challenge (p. 23).
Perhaps as a consequence, considering the church primary schools studied,
None of the three schools do a Seeing Anew collective worship every time they meet for collective worship. They generally plan for one a week for a block of four weeks. Having said that, the understanding of collective worship is about painting a picture of life lived as God intends. This insight gained from the initial thinking informs every collective worship whether it is a Seeing Anew one, or not (p. 23).
Further details of Seeing Anew are provided on the website of the Derby Diocesan Board of Education.