Canada’s Sixth Child (from Seeds & Sowers Children, 2007)1
Canada’s Sixth Child: A Service for Children’s Sunday
by Amy Crawford, Jackie Harper, and Jim Marshall
Please seek permission from other copyright holders referred to in this service if you wish to use their material in any other way.
Children’s Sunday
The 1994 General Council made the decision that Children’s Sunday should be celebrated annually across the church on a Sunday close to November 20. The date was chosen to tie in with National Child Day designated by the Canadian government in 1993 ( November 20 is also the anniversary of the United Nations ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Children’s Sunday provides congregations an opportunity to:
- pause and reflect on the needs, concerns, interests, and skills of children in their own community
- pause and reflect on the quality of life for all children living in Canada
- pause and reflect on the quality of life for all the world’s children
“Canada’s Sixth Child” was developed for a chapel service at the General Council Office of The United Church of Canada and was used in the week before Children’s Sunday (2006). While the service celebrates children, it focuses on the quality of life for children living in Canada, highlighting the plight of children who are neglected. Since the service was held in a work environment, no children were present. Where congregations adapt this service for their own church contexts, the inclusion of children in all aspects of planning, participation, and leadership of worship will bring additional enrichments—opportunities for children to learn and comment on the fact that young people in their own country, in their own communities, are suffering injustices. The service might be followed with an invitation to children and youth to help devise a program whereby their church communities can help “the sixth child.”
Prior to the Service
- Invite people of all ages to help plan and participate in the service. Work together as a team and adapt the songs, prayers, litanies, and actions in ways that will be most effective in your faith community.
- For the dialogue “Canada’s Sixth Child” (below), you might create a PowerPoint presentation using some 10 slides of children in contexts that will help highlight the message. If you plan to use original artwork for a PowerPoint presentation for “Canada’s Sixth Child,” invite children to create drawings depicting the statements. Be sure to inform them ahead of time that the plan is to use their art in a PowerPoint presentation and that you will need their specific permission to use their creations in this way.
- For the Act of Commitment, cut small fabric squares (approximately 6cm or 2.5"), fill with two tablespoons of salt, and tie up the edges with a short length of wool; place one salt bag along with a small birthday candle in a small resealable plastic bag. You will need one “package” for each person in the congregation.
- The poem “Role Model” from The Children’s Defense Fund’s publication Hold My Handby Marian Wright Edelman was adapted and used for the bulletin cover.
Parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle
A child is watching you today
What will they learn?
Teacher, preacher, prime minister
A child is depending on you
How will you repay their trust?
Coach, celebrity, citizen, neighbour
A child is emulating you today
What kind of human being will they be?1
Order of Service
Gathering
Call to Worship
We have been called the salt of the earth.
Let us remain distinctive and salty.
We have been called the light of the world.
Let us shine brightly in the midst of pain or confusion.
We have been called a city set on a hill.
Let us, like Jerusalem, lift our gates, lift our hearts, lift our voices in the worship of God.2
(Celebrate God’s Presence, page 21, 18F001)
Hymn: “Bring Many Names” (Voices United 268)
Prayer: Body Prayer3
(Invite the congregation to stand and participate in this prayer, first as it is explained, and then silently with no explanation.)
Stand with your feet firmly planted on the ground. Remember that you are rooted and connected to all of God’s creation.
Place your palms together in front of you, assuming a prayerful position. Remember that worship involves all of our being—the right and left hemispheres of our brains.
Bow to the earth, honouring the source of all life.
Raise both hands over your head and open your palms upward. Consider all of the wonders and the vastness of the universe, and be open to the blessing of God.
Bring your arms down and out to form a circle in front of you, touching the tips of your longest fingers. Remember that you are part of the world and connected to all of the world’s people and all of the joys and the struggles of humankind.
Bring your arms in and cross over the chest to give yourself a hug. Remember that you are loved, as wondrous, unique creations of God.
Open arms wide with your palms extended and turn your body to face those around you, offering a blessing to all who are gathered.
Clasp your hands together in the prayer position and bow again to the earth.
Rise and clap your hands as a reminder to stay aware and open to God’s presence in and around us.
(Repeat the actions without describing their meaning.)
Word
Scripture:Jeremiah 31:15–17
Canada’s Sixth Child4
(Invite six children to lead the litany, one of whom has no voice in the reading. As the litany is read, a PowerPoint presentation projects images of children in contexts that reflect the readings.)
Voice 1
Imagine a very wealthy family with six young children who have yet to start school. Five children have enough to eat and comfortable, warm rooms in which to sleep. One does not. She is often hungry and lives in a cold room. Sometimes she has to sleep on the streets or in a shelter. At times she runs away and has even been taken away from her family and placed in foster care with strangers.
Voice 2
Imagine this family giving five of their young children nourishing meals and safe water to drink every day, but letting the sixth child go hungry or allowed to survive on sugary drinks and unhealthy foods that cause her to struggle with obesity and poor health.
Voice 3
Imagine this very wealthy family making sure five of their young children get all their shots, immunizations, and regular check-ups, including regular dental exams, but ignoring the sixth child who is plagued by chronic infections and asthma.
Voice 4
Imagine this rich family making sure that five of their children get stimulating preschool experiences and sending the sixth child to poor quality child care with overworked and underpaid caregivers.
Voice 5
Imagine this family reading every night to five of their children and leaving the sixth child unread to, untalked to, and unsung to, or plopped before a television screen that feeds the child violence and ads for things that she’ll never be given.
Voice 1
Imagine this family spending $13 for books, toys, clothing, and food for five of their children as they spend $1 on the sixth child.
Voice 2
As the children grow up, imagine this family sending five of them to good schools in safe neighbourhoods with proper books, computers, and the support they need to learn and thrive, but the sixth child doesn’t have the services she needs to cope with her learning disabilities and she is bullied and teased by her classmates.
Voice 3
Imagine that five of the children are taken to the library, parks, and museums on a regular basis and are enrolled in music and dance classes, play on sports teams, and attend camps, while the sixth child meets her friends on unsafe streets or unkempt playgrounds.
Voice 4
This is our Canadian family today, where one in six of our youngest children lives in poverty. It is not a stable or healthy family or a sufficiently compassionate one.
Voice 5
What do we know about Canada’s sixth child? Canada’s sixth child is likely to live in a family in which at least one parent has been fully employed during the last year. Canada’s sixth child is more often Aboriginal, a recent immigrant, or of a visible minority. Canada’s sixth child usually lives in a female, lone-parent family. Canada’s sixth child is less likely to be academically prepared to start school and will experience a less positive, less successful school career. These children are more likely to have emotional problems and to exhibit anxiety, aggressive behaviours, and hyperactivity. They are more likely than their non-poor counterparts to become involved in illegal activities as they mature.
Prayer of Confession
Merciful God, when millions of children suffer hunger, we confess that we have not worked faithfully enough to feed them. When one of every six children in our nation lives in poverty, we confess that we have not laboured with love that is deep enough or broad enough. When we give up trying to solve the huge problems children face, we confess that we have not been steadfast in our hope.
Forgive us, we pray. Help us to labour more faithfully, lovingly, and persistently so that one day all children will be loved and protected.
Hymn: “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” (VU 400)
Assurance of Pardon
It is time to honour and celebrate children! God loves and embraces children and adults and offers us all the opportunity for a fresh start. We are forgiven. Thanks be to God. Amen.
(Prior to the Act of Commitment, invite children to circulate through the congregation with the bags containing a birthday candle and package of salt.)
Act of Commitment5(read by adults)
Voice 1
Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to [God].” (Matthew 5:14)
Voice 2
Take a moment now to recall the ways that you are a light in children’s lives already—as a parent, teacher, coach, mentor, aunt, uncle, grandparent, friend.
Voice 3
In the silence of your hearts, consider prayerfully new ways you can be a light in children’s lives—by giving your time, your voice, and your resources for the wholeness and health and well-being of all children.
Voice 1
Think now of a time when your hopes were diminished, your energy was flagging, and your commitment to be a light for children was wavering, and someone blew the embers of your soul back into flame.
Voice 2
Jesus said: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (Matthew 5:13)
Voice 3
Take a moment to consider you own “saltiness.” What are your own unique, distinctive, God-given characteristics and gifts that bring life and zest? How can you use these gifts to improve the lives of children?
Voice 1
In Old Testament times, salt symbolized the making of a covenant. As we hold this salt, let us join in a covenant with God and one another.
All: We covenant with God and one another to be salt and light in the lives of children. Amen.
Thanksgiving
Song:“This Little Light of Mine”
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine (3x)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Shine it for the children, I’m gonna let it shine (3x)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
This whole world of ours, I’m gonna help it shine (3x)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Offering one another signs of peace
Offering our gifts of money
Prayer over the gifts
Sending Forth
Commissioning
Let us go now in hope—
to proclaim the message of God’s love for all God’s children,
to proclaim God’s call for justice for all God’s children,
to proclaim God’s peace offered to all God’s children,
to proclaim God’s vision of shalom—peace and wholeness—for all children.
Let us go now trusting God to go with us.
Sung Blessing
“May the God of Hope Go with Us” (VU 424)
Amy Crawford is Program Coordinator, Children and Young Teens, and Jackie Harper was Program Coordinator, Families and Seniors (both in the Congregational, Educational, and Community Ministries Unit). Jim Marshall was Program Coordinator, Economic Justice and Social Wellbeing (Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit).
Notes
1. Copyright © 2001 by Marian Wright Edelman. All rights reserved.
2. Written by Robert Oliphant and reprinted with his permission.
3. Body Prayer adapted from David Robertson and Dawn Kilarski with permission.
4. Information for “Canada’s Sixth Child” was gathered from “The Progress of Canada’s Children and Youth,” a report compiled by the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) in 2006 ( The format was based on a reading in Volume 11 of the Children’s Defense Fund’s resources for Children’s Sabbath (2002).
5. Adapted from Act of Commitment, pp. 41–42, Write the Vision: Creating Communities of Shalom for All Children, Children’s Defense Fund, 2001, Washington, DC.
© 2007 The United Church of Canada/L’Église Unie du Canada. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike (by-nc-sa) Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit Any copy must include this notice.