Matthew Gee
Both the Beansprouts and Sunflowers children’s meetings continue via Zoom. We have sadly said goodbye to three children who have moved away from Oxford earlier in the year, and have also welcomed a new child to the meeting.
In March, our Beansprouts children’s meeting (for toddlers) had a theme of animal homes, using this to think about what we all need to feel safe and secure, using resources from the child mental health charity Place2Be. Some of the stories we shared are: The Home Builders by Varsha Bajaj; Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner; and Little Home Bird by Jo Empson.
Over successive weeks we each made an animal out of a toilet roll inner; then made a home for our animal, then drew/stuck what we thought our animal needed in its home.
In April we explored the theme of identity and colour. Some of the stories we shared included: Black all Around! by Patricia Hubbell; My Many Coloured Days by Dr Seuss; The Song of Francis by Tomie dePaola; and Sky Color by Peter H. Reynolds, as well as some stories from the Children of God Storybook Bible by Desmond Tutu.
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In the Sunflowers children’s meeting, for Friends age 4-12 years, we have been reading a chapter a week of Benjamin the Meetinghouse Mouse by Clifford Pfeil.
Benjamin has joined us each week via Zoom to tell us his story. Along the way we all made mouse finger puppets; thought about inclusion and accessibility in our meetings; and tried writing our own queries.
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We also read George’s Journey by Marcela Teran and Tim Gee: a rhyming story about George Fox. We then each drew around our feet, decorating our foot-shapes with words and pictures about a big step we have taken in our own lives.
Each Sunflowers children’s meeting includes several periods of silent worship, with each of the children rotating the role of elder: a role which continues to be very popular. Our practice of the children holding the silence and bringing it to an end themselves is spreading to other children’s meetings, and was featured in the March Quake! newsletter from Britain Yearly Meeting.
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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 505 • May 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW