Acts of Collective Worship on-line

Nowadays there so many resources on-line offering you collective worship solutions that you can almost plan an entire year's worth of assemblies surfing through the world wide web! These are the Diocesan Adviser's personal top ten sites at the moment:

Of course, Ely Diocese first! Elsewhere on this site is a programme of collective worship suggestions based on the Sunday Bible Readings (lectionary) in Anglican churches. This is a three year cycle, and all three years are now in place. Obviously the ideas do not have to be used in the week they were written for (there is a thematic index), but if you do follow the programme as designed you will also be following the pattern of worship at your own parish church. www.ely.anglican.org/education/schools Additional acts of worship will be included on this site over time, and may be accessed through the thematic index.

A near neighbour in Norwich Diocese, Janice Scott, the rector of Dickleburgh and Pulham, has also got a website of talks for children linked with the weekly lectionary (chiefly adaptations of Bible stories and Christian legends) see www.sermons-stories.co.uk/stmkarchive.htm

www.assemblies.org.uk SPCK's collective worship site. SPCK has joined with the All Saints Educational Trust to provide a website which will include two new assemblies a week on a Christian theme. They also promise "rapid response assemblies" for world events which impinge on children's lives. The acts of worship are usually not date specific and helpfully include an indication of which key stage they are most suitable for.

www.culham.ac.uk offers regular collective worship ideas.

Blackburn Diocese at www.blackburn.anglican.org offers outline assembly themes with a strongly Biblical flavour. Follow the links to "collective school worship".

The Church of Scotland Board of Parish Education offers talks for children particularly linked with the Christian year. This now includes a scripture index with over 160 entries.. www.talks2children.itsforministry.org

For collective worship with an environmental theme go to REEP at www.reep.org/cw/

The Hibbert Trust has materials for collective worship, PSE and RE at primary and secondary level. Their site includes hymns, prayers, worship and follow-up suggestions and a photograph to illustrate the theme. See www.hibbert-assembly.org.uk/index.html

www.prayingeachday.org/reflect.html The de la Salle brothers have a lovely site that includes a reflection and prayer for every day of the year. Some of these will be more appropriate for secondary school than primary, but others could readily be adapted to the primary phase or stimulate your thinking!

www.schoolassemblies.btinternet.co.uk/scripcon.htm has assembly scripts to download. Most of these literally are scripts, with reading parts for several children. This is a Roman Catholic site and also includes scripts for masses which may be of use to you if you are putting together a church service. The site is composed chiefly of assemblies that have been submitted by teachers, and that really worked!

Contents

1. What is worship?
2. Collective Worship and the law
3. The Anglican Tradition
4. The Aims of Collective Worship
5. The Policy
6. Ways of planning and recording
7. Planning Issues
8. Collective worship ideas and support on the world wide web
9. Asking Visitors to lead worship
10. Guidelines to be given to Visitors to lead worship
11. Are Assembly and Collective worship the same thing?
12. Themes and schemes for planning collective worship
13. Bible stories for use with collective worship themes
14. Involving pupils in Collective worship

Document Downloads

• Collective Worship in Church Schools