These pages will give you some ideas and assistance if you are planning a faith-based event in Scouting, such as a Scouts' Own, St. George's Day celebration or a children's service.
Organising Faith Events
Why?
There are many reasons to have a faith-based event in Scouting:
- To mark a particular event or milestone in Scouting or locally or nationally, such as St. George's Day, Remembrance Sunday or the centenary of Scouting.
- To celebrate a religious festival, such as Christmas.
- As part of a Scouting activity, such as a camp or fun day, perhaps as a Scouts' Owns
There is more information about St. George's Day Celebrations and Scouts' Owns here:
Your event may be based in one religious tradition, or it may be an interfaith event - incorporating ideas and themes from many different religions. Whatever your event, it is important to remember that most Scouting activities in the UK will be attended by people from different faiths and religious traditions. Before you begin to plan your event, there are a few things that you should bear in mind; Scouts' Own and other interfaith should not be seen as a replacement for an individual's own act of worship according to their faith. If events are not planned carefully, participants may find themselves taking part in acts of worship that do not relate to what they consider to be divine. Some people may find that an event makes assumptions about their beliefs and does not take into account the differences between and within faiths. When you are planning your event, always consider your audience.
Who?
The Planning Team
If you are planning on setting up a group to plan the detail of the service, you should aim to have as varied a group as possible, representing those who will be attending:
- Mixed ages
- Mixed sexes
- Mixed faith
- Mixed skills: music, public speaking, drama...
- Those with and without experience of putting a service together.
It is important that you are clear from the start about the purpose and the outcome of the short time that will be spent together This is extremely useful to know from the start to ensure that there is no time wasted. You can get straight on with researching ideas for the correct audience.
Who will be attending?
An early estimate of the numbers attending needs to be made because a large enough venue must be selected to accommodate everyone comfortably. The venue for the event should be decided early in the planning so that it can be booked as soon as possible.
Remember the event needs to be relevant to those participating.
Make sure you are planning a service for the right group of people, you would not use the same service for Beaver Scouts as you would for adults!
Who will be delivering the event?
You may with to use several different people during your event to deliver readings and addresses. This will add variety to the event and the different vocals will make it more interesting to listen to.
People that have been asked to give a reading or speak at the event should be briefed about the audience and also informed about the theme and programme, so that they understand where they fit in. If the person is a visitor to the area, some background details may be useful, for example: well known and commonly used local customs; directions of how to reach the venue and a route map.
What?
What is going to happen during your event? Many faith events in Scouting take the form of songs and readings chosen to fit a particular theme, but there are many other ways you could structure the event and activities you could do. Your choices will depend very much on why you are holding the event, who the event is for, the venue and the theme. You might want to consider using:
- Drama
- Games and activities
- Pictures and photographs - You could project digital photographs on to a wall as a slide show
- Clips from films and TV shows
The Resources section of these pages has links to sources of ideas for the content of the event.
Readings
Few people can take in all that is said during a straight talk of more than 10 minutes, so try and keep readings short and relevant. Remember your participants! If you have a young audience you may find it easier to hold their attention by incorporating a few different readers, action or drama. There are some suggestions for sources of readings here:
Music
Try mixing old and new, so that everyone participating enjoys singing something. Songs that require everyone to join in work better when everyone knows the song and the words! You could send out the words in advance, or use call and repeat methods during the event. Make sure there is variety in the music chosen.
What songs and readings are you going to use? Do you need copyright permission?
If you wish to use some songs or readings you may need to get permission from the publishers or owners of the copyright. At the bottom of the songs or readings there will be a © symbol and next to that will be the name of who owns the copyright. You will need to write to them and ask for permission to use their material. There may be a charge for this and the whole process can take a while, so it is best to plan ahead so you are not left waiting for permission, this could hold the whole event up.
An interfaith Association
The Scout Association has members of many different faiths, and it is likely that at a Scout event in the UK, there will be members from different faiths present. Consideration of the different denominations and faiths that will be involved is very important.
Andrew Sarle is the Education Officer for the Churches Agency for Inter Faith Relations in Scotland, he recommends using a prayer that includes phrases from prayers of many religious traditions. He avoids phrases that could be seen as specific to one tradition (there is no mention of Jesus, for example) but emphasises elements of prayer that all faith traditions can share together. See his website for more details:
http://www.acts-scotland.org/cairs/
There is more information on organising interfaith celebrations in this factsheet:
Collection
You might want to consider having a collection at the event, to raise money for a charity, or project. Make sure you have planned how the money will be collected.
Where?
A careful check of the venue where the event is being held needs to be made in advance. This may affect the whole planning of the event. Things such as the size, the use of audio-visual equipment, the positions of furnishings and pillars will be useful to know when planning the event. For example, if the acoustics of the area are not very good, you may need to use equipment and adjust where the audience sits.
Protocol
If the event is to be held in a Cathedral, the whole project must be discussed and shared with the Dean or Provost and their support should be invited. In a church or chapel a visit to the minister, who has agreed to the use of the building, should be made right at the start to discuss the proposed event and to request their help.
