• Be not afraid. Have fun!
• Make it a cooperative effort of creative people: cooks and bakers, musicians, teachers and librarians.
• Pick songs and hymns that speak to and of children and child-like faith, and that celebrate God’s creation and all God’s creatures.
• Decorate your sanctuary with Seuss books from personal or public library collections.
• Encourage children to bring a Seuss stuffed animal or their favorite book.
• Preachers may refer to The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss by James W. Kemp (Judson Press, 2004) or The Parables of Dr. Seuss by Robert L. Short (Westminster John Knox, 2008).
• Worship leaders should practice the liturgy so they read and pray it with dignity and reverence, not in a sing-sing, silly way.
Contact Klafehn by email for more information.
This column helps congregations and individuals plan for the church year's upcoming celebrations, seasons or commemorations. See previous columns...
Send congregational stories — both those for a specific month/holiday or your best timeless idea to Julie Sevig.
For you have given us this great time,
filled with laughter, humor and rhyme.
And you have shown us your holy love,
that you have sent from heaven high up above.
If you think that sounds like Dr. Seuss, you're as sharp as the Cat in the Hat. It's just part of a Dr. Seuss liturgy used at churches celebrating the life and work of Theodor Seuss Geisel, whose birthday is March 2 (he would be 108 this year).
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| Richard Klafehn and congregational children during the Dr. Seuss liturgy. |
Last year, when the famous Lutheran's birthday fell prior to Lent, two upstate New York congregations, Transfiguration (Rochester) and Bethlehem (Webster), treated worshipers to an unusual Sunday service of rhyming phrases. Children brought Dr. Seuss toys and adults wore playful hats. One congregation served — what else?: green eggs and ham.
Rick Klafehn was interim pastor at the time. He now serves a Lutheran-Episcopal partnership in Oswego and Fulton, N.Y. "Dr. Seuss' dad was Lutheran and his mom was Episcopalian, so I've suggested we make Dr. Seuss a symbol of our faith partnership," he said.
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