Irenic Thoughts

Irenic. The word means peaceful. This web log (or blog) exists to create an ongoing, and hopefully peaceful, series of comments on the life of King of Peace Episcopal Church. This is not a closed community. You are highly encouraged to comment on any post or to send your own posts.

8/21/2006

The Holy Spirit

August 2006 Kids in the Kingdom on the Holy Spirit

The stained glass window of Genesis 1:1 at King of PeaceHow do you picture The Holy Spirit? In the Hebrew Bible, the word ruach means wind, breath and spirit. And it is this ruach of God which hovered over the waters in creation as shown in the stained glass window above the altar at King of Peace.

Yesterday for our Kids in the Kingdom Sunday, the kids and I sang some fun songs, then we settled down to talk about The Holy Spirit. I often use a book, or at least a children's Bible to help with part of the story time on our once a month Christian Education for kids 4 years old through fifth grade. But there are not children's story books about The Holy Spirit. This is odd as it is the third person of the Trinity that we know best as God's spirit speaks to our spirit. The kids had no trouble at all talking about the spirit of God being with them always—God in each one's heart, even mean people.

After talking about The Holy Spirit we moved on to eating pizza and then making pinwheels to spin in the wind. The kids went out to test drive the pinwheels on the playground. With a little extra engineering on a few of them by my very able adult helpers (Melissa, Tammy, Martis and Gina) they all worked great when blown on or when running holding the pinwheel out.

But then the breeze picked up and the pinwheels turned without the children doing anything. Look at the picture above and tell me you don't see The Holy Spirit coming unbidden to and through those kids.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church

posted by King of Peace @ Monday, August 21, 2006  

2 Comments:

  • At 8/21/2006 11:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    We are more suseptible to the spirit moving in us and through us while still in the innocence of youth. It's only when we become old enough to reason that we begin to close our minds.

    On a slightly different topic, why do some denominations call the thrid part of the Trinity the Holy Spirit and others the Holy Ghost?

     

  • At 8/22/2006 6:48 AM, Blogger King of Peace said…

    William,

    The difference is found in these two translations of Matthew 28:19:

    King James' Version "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

    New American Standard Version, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."

    "Holy Ghost" is a King James translation where all the other translations use the term "Holy Spirit." So a KJV only church would definitely say Holy Ghost, some others probably do as well. But churches which use modern English translations will tend to follow suit and use "Holy Spirit" in their worship.

    Frank+

     

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