| These are notes and comments on some of the items which appear in the Family Service script. Links from the script point to these entries; clicking the links in the left hand column of the table takes you back to the corresponding link in the script - or, where more than one link from the script points to the note, back to the first such link.
The comments are typically related to features of the service which are specific to our church or the time of the service, or which for some other reason we think might require alteration for another setting. For references to the internal geography of the church, it might be helpful to inspect the plan. |
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| BEFORE THE SERVICE - | ||
| Properties : |
Four NOTICES at the front by the wall on the hospital side.
Shirt or top for girl to borrow. Paper and pencil, by the organ, to write rules on. Ten cubes ready to carry to the front for stacking. Set them out according to the people available; the "family" should be included, but others can take part as convenient. Most cubes should be at the back to encourage a visible procession, but we found it convenient to put two elsewhere for people who weren't at the back. | |
| Furniture : | Table with table cloth and six chairs in front of altar. The chairs are all behind the table facing the congregation so the family can be seen and heard. | |
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| CUBES. | These are ten large cubes, big enough to see clearly from the back of the church, but not too big for the participants to carry about comfortably. They symbolise the ten commandments. They are clearly numbered from 1 to 10. | |
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| CUBES OUT. | The cubes are brought to the front of the church one by one, and stacked on the table ( by our tallest actor ) as they arrive. There is no deep significance in the cubes being on the table - it's just to make them more easily visible from the back of the church.
After giving their cubes to the stacker, the family move across to the hospital side and wait; others return to their places. | |
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| GOD. | God is never seen. The character playing His part speaks from the balcony, which is behind the congregation, above the Lobby, Baptistry, and Vestry ( see the plan ). | |
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| GOD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS. | The words given here are our own revision of an earlier version, which we can no longer identify and can therefore not acknowledge. We assert that ours rhymes and scans better, but the sentiments are unchanged.
( Tune - "Bradbury", traditionally associated with "Jesus loves me, this I know". ) | |
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| READ THEM AGAIN .... | We always display our script on a screen as the performance proceeds. At this point, the display was moved back to show again the text from the reading from "Love is patient ..." to "... never fail". | |
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| NOTICES. | The notices say
SATURDAY LUNCHTIMEEARLY IN THE WEEK FRIDAY MORNING AFTER SCHOOL They must ( obviously ) be big enough to be read easily from anywhere in the church. At each of these four events, the Herald carries the corresponding notice across the church by the altar rail, as well as announcing it. The intention is to emphasise the successive steps in the action; we used both speech and notice because many of our actors are children with not very loud voices. | |
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| STORY. | We don't have a copy of the story. Another story or testimony - true, for preference - in which a character exercised forgiveness with a good outcome could be substituted. Obviously, references to the story and to Thomas should be changed accordingly. | |
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| THOMAS. | References to "Thomas" should be changed to match the chosen story ! | |
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| TOP | Upper garment, not toy. A different garment could be used if preferred, with corresponding changes in the script; if it isn't a garment, more extensive changes might be needed. | |
