16/5/10 Easter 7 – Sunday after Ascension Day

 

Prisoners of Conscience

BIBLE READING

Acts chapter 16 veses 16-34

PREPARATION

Before this assembly, consult the Amnesty International website for current information on prisoners of conscience: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/  

A copy (picture) of the Amnesty International symbol for prisoners of conscience – a candle surrounded by barbed wire. Candles or tea-lights.

INTRODUCTION

Come into the assembly in “a really bad mood”.  Tell the children that for some spurious reason you are cancelling break and that everyone will be expected to work through.  Have a colleague ready to protest about the unfairness of the punishment.

Remember to show mercy and relent!

THE MESSAGE

Sometimes a punishment seems unfair, like the one you have just tried to impose.  Tell the story of Paul and Silas who were thrown into prison for helping someone – they had cured a woman who was mentally ill.  But the woman was a slave, and the men who owned her didn’t want her to be cured because she made money for them when she was sick by telling fortunes.  So Paul and Silas ended up in prison.

Discuss together: was this fair?

Continue with the story of the earthquake and the two prisoners’ final release.

So Paul and Silas had suffered because they were Christians and doing God’s will.  They are not the only people who have been put in prison, not for a crime, but for their faith, or for something they didn’t do, or because of their political beliefs.  This has been going on for hundreds of years, and there are still people in prison today for these reasons.

Show the Amnesty International symbol and introduce them as a charity which works to try and save people who have been wrongly imprisoned because of their beliefs, just like Paul and Silas.  Explain that you have found out the names of some of these people and you would like to pray for them today.

PRAYER

Light the prayer candle and pray for people who are wrongly imprisoned.  If you feel it is appropriate, you may wish to say their names and the country they are in.  alternatively, you could have a number of small tea-lights and light one for each named person.