Creation Connection: Series for Children
Introducing the Creation Connection Series for Children
Written by Elke Keeling, in partnership with A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand, the Creation Connection series is an experiential and contemplative approach where children connect to God, each other and the natural world around them by connecting to and becoming aware of God’s Creation and discovering together how to act with love, care and responsible, compassionate action within it.
We aim to give children experiences in nature where they notice the world around them, connect to it and learn to care for it. Through connection to nature, children notice the Creator at work in every detail and connect to God and each other through their experiences. We thus follow a cycle of Ecology, Theology and Contemplative Action to help children experience, learn and make meaning that leads to thoughtful action.
Children will cycle through the series by:
- CONNECTING to what is happening in creation, learning to notice, and connecting to each other.
- Developing AWARENESS of the intricacies of nature and the creative God who made it. Noticing what creation says about the character and nature of God and how biblical perspectives support care of creation and love of the other.
- RESEARCHING environmental projects in their context and discovering sustainable practices for their lives.
- EXPERIENCING the joy of making a positive difference to the environment around them, individually, in their families and in their communities.
‘BACKGROUND’ and ‘UNIT 1’ now available as PDF downloads
Background to Creation Connection Series for Children – Introduces the series, and provides background information on how the series was conceptualised and framed.
Unit 1: Introduction to Creation Care – Forms the foundation for all the other units.
Unit 2 onwards will cover environmental themes such as waste, biodiversity, food, water etc. and will be made available when they are completed.
The units are designed to be flexible for a variety of contexts and can be used for example for a Sunday School Children’s Programme, a midweek Creation Connection Club or a five-day Holiday Programme.
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The Creation Connection series is one of the resources offered by A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand as part of the Eco Church NZ project. Through the Eco Church NZ project, our goal is to support churches across Aotearoa NZ to actively care for God’s earth as an integral part of their mission.
About the author, Elke Keeling:
Elke was a Children’s Pastor for many years and studied at Carey College for an Applied Theology degree at the same time. She consequently did further post graduate study at Carey, with a focus on Children’s Spirituality and Spiritual Formation. Elke co-leads Godly Play New Zealand which is a method of Christian Education where children are encouraged to discover God for themselves. For the last 10-15 years she has been involved in study, research and practice to evolve new processes of Spiritual Formation for children in our 21st century culture. She enjoys creating and writing projects that engage children both in God’s World and God’s Works.