Vicarage Park School

This morning I went over to Vicarage Park School, Kendal to take the assembly.  The theme I was given was compassion.  So after singing So Many Ways to Praise the Lord I showed the PIXAR animated clip 'Birds on a Wire'  which has several birds all chatting on a telephone wire, when a bigger bird wants to join in.  The bigger bird is very different to the others and they therefore make fun of him and laugh at him.  Then when he comes to join them they complain to each other and force him to get off by pecking at his feet.  He does eventually fall off but in so doing he catapults the other birds upwards.  Then as the clip ends the big bird is on the floor and all the other birds drop down besides him but they have lost all their feathers and now need to shelter under the big bird for warmth.  After the clip I showed some still images from the movie and talked about the reaction of the birds to the bigger bird saying that they were not showing him kindness, love or compassion.  I said that we can sometimes be like that with other people who we perhaps see as being different.  I then displayed the bible verse 'Love one another as I have loved you' and explained that Jesus wants us to be compassionate and loving, caring and kind to everyone we meet.  To close we sang Wonderful Lord and in the middle I said a short prayer.