All-age worship
The hardest service in the parish to design, and the one most often designed on Saturday night.
All-age worship is not children’s worship with adults watching, and it is not adult worship with a children’s talk inserted. It is a service in which both are genuinely participating, which is why it is difficult, and why the printed order matters more than at a eucharist where everyone knows what happens next.
The usual shape
Most parishes end up with a Service of the Word looking roughly like this:
- A gathering song, and a welcome that names who is present
- A short act of praise or penitence, often with actions
- One reading — not three — often dramatised or told rather than read
- The talk, activity or discussion: the centre of the service
- A creative response — making something, writing something, coming forward
- Prayers, frequently led by children
- A song, and the blessing
Printing for two audiences at once
| Do | Instead of |
|---|---|
| One reading, printed in full | Three readings, printed as citations |
| Larger type throughout — 12 or 13pt | 10pt to fit it on one sheet |
| A single A4 sheet, or A5 folded once | A twelve-page booklet nobody opens |
| Congregational words in bold, and few of them | Long responses the children cannot read |
| A picture, or space to draw in | Solid text to the margins |
| Rubrics as plain instructions — everyone stands | All shall stand |
The thing most often got wrong
Printing the same amount of liturgy in the same way and calling it all-age. If the booklet for the all-age service is the eucharist booklet with a different cover, the service will behave like the eucharist — and the children will correctly conclude that the words are not for them.
The single highest-value change is length. Four pages that a child can follow beats twelve that only the regulars can.
Questions
What is all-age worship?
A service in which children and adults are both genuinely participating, rather than children's worship with adults watching. In the Church of England it is almost always built on A Service of the Word.
How long should an all-age order of service be?
Short. Four pages that a child can follow works better than twelve that only the regulars can. One reading printed in full, larger type, and few congregational words.