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Children and young people are welcome at all services, however on the first Sunday of each month 'The four o'clock service' is held at 4pm. This is a short informal service suitable for children of all ages from 0 to 99.
The Four O'clock Service: 1st August 2010
St Francis of Assisi - 4th October 2009
After a couple of gathering songs, Fr David welcomed us all to the service, asking if we knew who's birthday it was today. After several suggestions one of the children told him it was St Francis' birthday. Fr David explained that it was actually the date on which he had been made a saint. He asked what St Francis was famous for and was told he was nice to animals, however we were told St Francis actually had nothing to do with animals at all, which was a bit difficult as Michael had chosen all songs about animals for the service.
Fr David then
picked
James to come out and pretend to be St Francis. We were told that St Francis
came from a wealthy family and liked to dress up in fine clothes. When he was
young, he loved fighting and was going to be a soldier. But he used to go to the
church and pray and one day come across a poor man who was ill, even though he
was disfigured St Francis stopped and gave him a hug and gave all his money to
him. He gave up all his wealth and started to live a simple life wearing an old
tunic. This was to be the start of the
Franciscan order of monks. Later on, one day while he was praying in front of a
crucifix, marks appeared on his hands, they were the marks of the nails from the
Crucifixion of Christ. Fr David also explained that St Francis had also brought
the first Christmas crib into the church.
Good Friday - 10th April 2009
On Friday morning there was a family service for Good Friday, it is a lovely service in which members of the congregation act out rolls of people who may well have been about on the first Good Friday, not the central characters of the story but other more peripheral people who may have seen the events; a servant girl who sees Peter deny Christ, Pilates wife, a Roman solider and the son of Simone of Cyrene. It really is a lovely service.
Children's Stations of the Cross - 8th April 2009
On Wednesday I took Jessie along to the Jubilate Choir as usual, but instead
of the normal choir activities a children's service reinacting the
Stations of the Cross had been arranged. The children really enjoy this
because it involves dressing up and acting. The children also learn a lot about
the
Easter Story.
Jessie was a Roman solider this year and was given a large wooden stick with
which to beat Christ. (I had my doubts about the wisdom of letting Jessie have a
club and telling her to beat someone! I thought that she may take method acting
a bit to far!). Father David had to make a rapid intervention to a young lad who
was about to nail Jesus to the cross with a mallet from the church tool kit. The
eve
ning ended with a cross made from two planks of wood and laid in front of the
altar and each child lighting a tea-light candle and putting it on the cross.
Jessie always lights a candle for her brothers as well as herself. It all went
well and the children did enjoy themselves.
Holy Week - 5th April 2009
The April Four O'clock service was about Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week. There was quiet a good turn out of both children and adults. The service started with gathering songs that the children had been learning for the last few weeks at the Jubilate Choir. After the first song we were told that we were going to start the service in the hall. When we arrived in the hall everyone was given a palm cross and these were blessed and sprinkled with holy water.
Father David told the children about the excitement the crowd had felt as
Jesus had rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and said that we were going to try
to
recreate the atmosphere with all the noise and excitement. To the delight of
the children they were told to go and collect a
The service told the story of Holy Week until Maundy Thursday. Four children
were invited to sit at the front of the Church and re-enact the story of
Jesus
washing the feet of his disciples and think about why he had done so
was arrested. The service concluded with
more songs and prayers. And lots of happy smiling children. A pleasant Sunday
afternoon, well spent.
St. David’s Day -1st March 2009
The theme for our Four O’clock service on 1st March was St. David. After we had sung a couple of gathering songs Fr David rain in with a bucket, he had heard we had a leak in church. It turned out to be a leek Fr Derek was holding because it was St. David’s day. We then sang ‘When the spirit of the Lord’, after which Fr David told us about St. David. Firstly he told us he lived in Wales and got the children to show us where Wales is on a map. He lived in a remote part of Wales and was very Holy. He was a monk and a Bishop. He also sometimes preached sermons. One day he was preaching and there were hundreds of people there, so many that they could not see or hear him. God made a special hill appear for him to stand on so everyone could see and hear him. At this point Fr David climbed up some steps he had hidden behind the Altar.
The service continued with us singing ‘I, the Lord of Sea
and Sky’. Fr David then told us that St. David liked to drink wine but he gave
up drinking it. He had several bottles and cans of drink and asked the children
if they thought St. David had drank each. They decided he didn’t drink Coke,
Guinness, Beer or Tango but only drank water (just like Fr David!). It was a bit
like giving up something for Lent, only St. David always only drank water.
We then sang ‘There was one’. Next we were told that St. David had spent a lot of his time praying. Fr David said some prayers while two children brought up some lit candles and placed them in front of the Altar.
The children were then asked if they knew why we have leeks
for St. David’s day. Fr David explained that the English were going to invade
Wales but everyone looked alike. The Welsh asked St. David how they would
recognise who was English and who was Welsh. They were t
old
to pull up a leek from the field and place it in their hat so everyone would
know they were Welsh. Fr David then put the leek on to Penny’s hat. The service
finished with us singing ‘I watch the sunrise’.
Crib Service - 24th December 2008
On Christmas Eve we held our Crib service. The
service started some children lighting the Advent candles. After we sang 'Come
and join the celebration' , Fr David asked the children who was coming tonight
after suggesting Father Christmas and then the reindeer, they said Jesus. Next
Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, told us about when Mary had gone to see her to tell
her she was expecting a baby. Elizabeth was also pregnant with John the Baptist.
We then sang 'Silent night'. Next, an Inn keeper told us about the evening
that Mary and Joseph and arrived wanting somewhere to stay and how he let them
sleep in the stable, then in the middle of the night Mary had given birth to
Jesus. After this we sang ' While shepherds watched', then a shepherd told us
about the angels coming and telling them baby Jesus had been born. This was
followed by us singing 
' See him lying on a bad of straw'.
Fr David then told us he had got all the
pieces out for the crib earlier but had forgotten where he had put them. The
children helped him find all the pieces (except Joseph and the dog who arrived
after the service!). While we sang 'Little donkey' the children and Fr David
took the crib pieces and put them in the crib. After singing 'Away in a Manger'
Fr David said some prayers and the service finished with ' Hark, the herald'
Christingle service - 7th December 2008
At the beginning of December we held our
annual Christingle service. After some gathering songs Fr David lit and blessed
the Evening candle. We then sang 'The light of Christ' , this was followed by a
reading from the book of Isaiah. Fr David then asked for 2 volunteers. He told
them he would call out a colour and they would have to take the correct colour
sweet off the plate. This sounded quite easy until he blindfolded one of them.
He went on to explain that it is difficult to do things if we can't see and that
we need light to see. He told us that people didn't know what to do so God sent
Jesus to be 
a
light to the world to show us how to live. Fr David then explained the
Christingles: the orange represents the world, the sweets are the fruit of the
earth, the red ribbon is the blood of Christ and the candle is the light of the
world, Jesus.
We then sang 'Lord, the light of you love' followed by some prayers. The Christingles were then given out to everyone and were lit while we sang 'Colours of day'. Fr David then blessed the Christingles and the service finished with us singing 'The spirit lives' while processing around the church to the High Altar.
All Saints - 2nd November 2008
The November Four O’clock Service was held on All Saints day. The service started with a couple of gathering songs lead by our music group. Fr David then introduced the service by asking the children about Halloween. The children said it was all about witches and ghosts. He went on to explain that really Halloween is the Eve of all Hallows or All Saints day. The children were able to name several saints including: St. James, St. David, St. Michael, St. Peter, St George and St. Steven.
We then sang ‘Jesus has all kinds of friends’. Fr David then told us he had a book which told you how to tell if someone will become a saint. It said they: have a halo, spend all day in church praying, are very serious and do not laugh and smile, they are very old and have grey hair and they lived a long, long, time ago. He then said that obviously no one here would become a saint. Fr David went on to explain that wasn’t correct, saints are just ordinary people like you and me; they wouldn’t have halos when they were alive, some saints were very young, and they didn’t spend all their time in church but may have gone out and helped people.
We then sang a song ‘Peter and John went to pray’ about the two saints Peter and John. After this the children did a
sketch about our church and the people
connected with it from the lady who cares for the church, the Bishop, the King,
the man who translated the bible, to the cross which Jesus died on. After
singing ‘There are hundreds of sparrows’, Fr David asked what Christians do
for one another, the children suggested: helping each other, teaching each other
and
praying for each other.
Fr David gave some of the children pictures of different saints which
they laid one at a time in front of the Altar with a candle to help us in our
prayers, for example with St George we prayed for this country, and St. Steven
for all those who are ill or suffering in any way. The service then finished
with us all singing ‘O when the saints’.
5th October 2008 The theme for the October Four O'clock service
was water. Fr David entered the church wearing a 
raincoat and carrying an
umbrella and introduced the service. After singing 'As the Deer' Fr David,
having removed his raincoat, blessed some water and some salt, then he used it
to sprinkle everyone while we sang ' Have you heard the raindrops'. Fr David
then showed us his cactus, it had died because he hadn't watered it unlike the
other plant he got from the choir vestry which had been watered and was still
alive. He explained that we all need water to live. He then told us we also need
water to wash, otherwise we end up smelling and sprayed someone with deodorant
because he hadn't washed recently.
After we all sang 'Vaster far than any ocean' Fr David asked for two
volunteers. He wrote 'bad' on the forehead of one in 
Ash and 'sin' on the
forehead of the other. He explained that sometimes we do bad things and that
another name for that is to sin. He went on to explain that when we are baptised
our sins are washed away, he then washed away the words 'bad' and sin' from the
children's foreheads. After singing 'There is a river' Fr David said some
prayers, then we all sang the Echo Lord's Prayer. We finished the service by
singing 'I watch the sunrise'.
7th September 2008 Gladiators was the theme for this
months Four O'clock service. After a couple of gathering so
ngs
Father David open the service by welcoming everyone. He then told us he had received
a phone call from Trinity school saying we had a bully. He called one of the
children out to the front explaining that he was Goliath and he was a bully, but
it was ok because David (another child) was there and he would sort the bully
out.
After singing 'When I feel the touch' Father David read us the story of David
and Goliath. We then sang ' Goliath was big'. Next Father David had placed 3
boxes in the pulpit. He asked the children to guess which would land first if
they were all 
dropped
at the same time. The children all said the smallest - as always showing you can
not trust children to say what you expect them to say. He then asked 3 children
to help by going up the pulpit and dropping the boxes together. After several
tries, in which the small box kept doing a false start and getting dropping too
early, they eventually got the three boxes to land at the same time. This was to
illustrate what we had just sang that ' Biggest isn't always best'.
After another song and some prayers, Father David got our David and Goliath
to come out to the front again. He expl
ained
that David killed Goliath by being cleverer than him. He then asked us for ways
of dealing with bullies. The children suggested: telling a teacher, saying stop,
walking away, asking why? or becoming the bullies friend. David then killed
Goliath with his sword and we finished by singing 'Step by step'.
3rd August 2008 The Four O'clock service for August had the theme 'The Olympics - run the race'. Everyone had been asked beforehand to come in sports gear. We started the service by singing a couple of gathering songs, then as we sang 'Colours of Day' Fr David ran into the church carrying a torch. He explained that it represented the Olympic torch.
He then told us he was a footballer as he had come dressed in a
football t-shirt. He asked several members of the congregation why they had come
dressed as they had; one child had come dressed in her PE kit, any other in her 
majorettes
outfit, a lady had come in a rugby top but explained that she was not really a rugby
player but had borrowed the top, another lady had come as a bike rider who had
fallen off her bike and another as a runner. Fr David then read a bit from the
bible which St. Peter had written about running the Christian race. He went on
to explain that to do any sport you have to train; just because he was wearing a
football T-shirt didn't make him a good footballer. He then went on to talk
about how we know someone is a Christian - the children suggested that they
would go to church, be baptized, receive the sacraments and pray. Fr David told
us we must train to be a good Christian not only by going to church but also by
praying, and reading our bible but also by how we 
lead
our lives.
He then went on to say that in sport only the winner gets the Gold medal but in the Christian race we all get the prize of eternal life. He then gave out medals to everyone to represents this.
1st June 2008 The theme
for this Four O'clock service was 'belonging'. After a couple of
gathering songs Fr David welcomed everyone. He started the service by having
a moan that someone had been untidy and left their sweatshirt in church. He
asked if we could tell who it might belong to. The children suggested it was
someone who went to big school, and that it must be Trinity School as it was
a Trinity school sweatshirt. Fr David then found three people who had come
to church dressed 'funny'. One was an explorer scout, and another was a
cub, we could tell thi
s
because of their uniforms. We could even tell they belonged to the 13th
Woolwich group because of their badges. He then found another child who was
dressed in a martial arts suit, he explained that he does Tai Kwan do and
showed us a couple of kicks he had learnt.
Fr David then asked Fr Derek why he was dressed like that. He explained that he was wearing a 'dog collar' and black suit because he is a priest. He went on to explain that we all belong to something; the church. He asked how people know we belong to the church as we do not have a uniform. He brought out a mini font and the children said we had all been baptised. However, people can not see that you have been baptised. They then said many people wear a cross, but Fr David pointed out that you see all sorts of thugs around Abbey Wood wearing Rosaries and just wearing one does not make them a Christian. The children then suggested that we know someone is a Christian by the way they behave; they read the bible, come to church and try to be good.
4th May 2008 The theme for the May Four O’clock service was ‘The Way’. After a couple of gathering songs Fr David welcomed us to the service. He began to talk but was interrupted by two disciples rushing into the church. They told him they had been walking to Woolwich when they met a man and started talking to him. They told him all the things that had happened in Jerusalem, how they crucified Jesus and how the women had gone to the tomb but found the body wasn’t there. The man started talking to them about the bible, explaining it to them like no one ever had before. When they got to Woolwich they asked the man to stay with them and have something to eat. During the meal, he took the bread and broke it, just like Jesus did. Then they recognised him. It was Jesus and he was alive. They ran all the way back from Woolwich to tell everyone.
After singing ‘The Spirit lives’, Fr
David started talking again when a pilgrim arrived. Fr David
thought
he must be a rather poor holidaymaker because he had a rucksack instead of a
suitcase and wasn’t dressed well. He explained that a pilgrim is someone who
goes to a Holy place like Jerusalem or Rome and that he had been to
Walsingham in Norfolk, it is England’s Nazareth. Fr David asked him what he
did there and he replied that he went to church, hung around a bit, lit a
candle and then came home. He explained that the important bit of the
pilgrimage is the journey because being a Christian is like being on a
journey to God. On a pilgrimage we try to pray and learn a bit more about
God and hopefully it makes us better Christians when we get back home.
We sang ‘I watch the sunrise’ then Fr David rolled out a paper ‘road’. We then helped him to fill in the road with life’s journey starting with being born, then walking and talking, going to school, getting a job, getting married, having children, becoming grandparents, retiring, going into a retirement home and eventually dying. Next to it he marked out our Christian journey, starting with baptism, going to church, reading the bible, learning about God, taking first communion, getting confirmed and living a Christian life until we die and go to heaven.
We then sang a special song called ‘
Lord, look upon each helpless child’ which had been sung at some of the
children’s Baptisms. Fr David then explained that Lawrence was going to be
blessed as part of his Christian journey. Laurence uses a special sign
language called Makaton
and
Fr David showed us all the sign for Love. He asked us all to make the sign
while he blessed Lawrence to show that God loves him. After Fr David had
blessed him we finished by singing ‘step by step’. Although Lawrence is
usually unable to join us in church on a Sunday, he is still part of our
Christian family and it was great to see him taking another step along his
Christian journey. This was a lovely service and it was good to be joined by
Lawrence’s friends and family.
6th April 2008 - We celebrated the 100th birthday of St. Michael's church at our Four O'clock service. The service opened with some adults and children from St. Michaels' along with children from Jubilate and the Scout group each bringing up a lit candle. These were placed in front of the altar to form a number 100. While the candles were brought up we sang a medley of songs.
After the candles were blessed, Fr David introduced us
to four special visitors; two children
from
100 years ago and two from the present day. Fr David interviewed our
visitors to find out about their lives. We found out that the two visitors
from 100 years ago went to the newly built Alex McCleod School. They had
moved here into new houses and their fathers worked at The Royal Arsenal.
They went to the newly built St. Michaels' church which was warm because it
had central heating, something they didn't have at home. They were reading
the newly published Wind in the Willows. The visitors from the present day
liked watching TV and playing videos games and were watching Harry Potter in
DVD. They thought the church was nice but very cold as its only got old
radiators which don't work properly.
We
finished the service by singing Happy Birthday to St. Michael's and 3
children seeing if they could blow out the candles of the number 100 in one
breath.
3rd February 2008 At another well attended
family service we celebrated Candlemas with a family Mass. The
service started with everyone gathering in St. Michael's chapel where Fr
David explained that it was 40 days since Christmas when Jesus was born and
today we were celebrating Jesus being presented in the Temple, which was the
custom of the Jews when the child was 40 days old. Everyone was given a
candle which was then lit, blessed and
sprinkled
with Holy Water. We processed around the church carrying our candles while
singing ' The Spirit lives to set us free'.
We continued our Mass with the 'clap, clap' Gloria and readings from the bible telling of Jesus being presented in the temple.
Fr David then got three children to come out and hold a
candle each. He told us the candles
were very 'last century' and that we were now going to use electric lights
on the Altar. He removed the candles on the Altar and replaced them with an
electric light. He explained that the light from the electric light is
generated from a power station but the light from a candle is generated from
within the candle. If we left both all night the electric light would still
be the same in the morning but the candle would have burn down. Fr David
went on to explain that this is like Gods love; when you love some one you
give yourself to them and that is what God did in giving us Jesus because he
loves us.
The service continued with us saying the Action Creed. After
we had shared the Peace we sang 'The light of Christ'. We then gathered
around the Altar as the Mass continued and received communion or a blessing.
After we returned to our places Fr David welcomed three
new
members of the 'Jubilate' choir, giving them their medals and making them
full members of the choir.
After the blessing we finished our Mass by singing 'Faithful vigil ended'.
4th November
2007 The theme for today's family service was 'Stars in your
eyes'. Father David started the service by asking what sort of stars you
can get and if we could guess what sort the service was about. After
suggesting you could have stars in the sky, film stars and
music stars we found out the service was about Christian stars or Saints.
After a song Father David got some children to come out and find the stars he had placed on the altar rail. They had names written on them and we had to say whether they were saints or not - they all were and they were placed in the middle of a square of candles to represent they were in heaven. These included 2 stars with no names on to represent the saints we don't know about but only God does.
After
another song one of the boys was interviewed 'Stars in their eyes' style by
Father David. He wanted to be a saint but his only talent was that he was
good at sweeping and opening doors. However, Father David looked in his book
and found he could be one, like St. Alphonsus. He placed a halo on him made
from glow sticks. We then sang another song during which everyone placed
their own smaller star with their name on around the square of candles to
indicate they want to become saints.
Father David then got
4 more children to tell him what we have to do to become saints
e.g. pray, and help
others. He then gave them each a glow stick halo to make
them saints.
7th October 2007
Today's theme was the power of prayer. Father David started off the
service by giving 4 children Rosaries. He said these could indicate various
things: the first
child
used it to indicate she was a drug dealer, the second to show she was part
of the St Michael's gang, the third wore it because it was cool and the
fourth to pray with and was powerful.
This was followed by
a reading from Ephesians 6:14-18. Father David got another child to come to
the front and as he read he dressed him up. He gave him a belt of truth, a
breastpl
ate
of righteousness, shoes of eagerness to spread the gospel, a shield of
faith, a helmet of salvation and a sword of the Spirit. Finally, the child
had been dressed up as a Power Ranger. He explained that a Power Ranger is
different from a normal Ranger as he has Power and we have the power of
prayer.
In his sermon Father David explained that on 7th October 1571 the Battle of Lepanto took place. This was a battle between a galley fleet of the Holy League (a Christian alliance from various countries including Spain, Italy and Germany) and a force of Ottoman galleys. The battle raged but eventually the Ottoman fleet was defeated. They found out afterwards that the Holy League had used the Rosary to pray for victory. This shows how powerful prayer can be.