Aim

To understand that the Christian faith is open to all.

Preparation

Before the lesson prepare materials necessary for trust games.

Lesson

Begin by staging a role play whereby a certain group of children is excluded from participating for the first part of the lesson. The following is an example only and may be adapted to suit the particular composition of your class.

Inform the children that for the course of this lesson you are only going to teach those children with dark hair. Children with hair of any other colour are not to listen. Re-arrange the seating so as the excluded group is now at the back.

Start to revise what was taught last week about St.Paul but immediately break off to re-consider the seating arrangements. Should the excluded group be accorded the privilege of sitting? Make them stand and face the opposite way to you.

Inform the dark-haired contingent that they are to receive a reward in the form of a sweet, merit mark, etc. Invite the excluded group to turn round. Inform them that if they too would like a reward, they must dye their hair. Are any of them willing to do so?

Ensure the group that everyone who has dark hair will receive a reward every day for the rest of their lives. This means that the dark-haired group, must never let their hair be bleached by the sun. If this happens, they must dye their hair immediately. Likewise, when they are older and their hair goes grey, they will have to dye it every day. And if their hair falls out, they will have to wear a dark wig.

Also, at all times, they must avoid light-haired people. If they speak to a light haired person, they must wash out their mouths. If a light-haired person speaks to them, they must wash out their ears.

Tell them that if they remember the motto "Dark hair is good, light hair is bad", then they should be alright.

Finish the role play.

How did it feel to be a member of the excluded group? How did it feel to be dark haired?

Hair colour is only one way in which people are divided? Can they think of any other ways?

Ask them to produce a list, for example, male / female, black / white, old / young.

Have any of the children been excluded on account of their age, gender, ability. Discuss.

The world in which Paul lived was even more divided than our own. The most vigorously maintained of all divisions, at that time, was that which existed between Jews and non-Jews. The hatred between these two groups was immense.

In which group, did the early followers of Jesus belong? Answer - they were almost all Jews.

Therefore most of them believed that if a non-Jew wanted to be a follower of Jesus, he had to become a Jew first and like all other Jews live his life by Jewish rules.

Paul disagreed. He taught that for the followers of Jesus these old divisions had to be forgotten. In a letter to a group of followers in Galatia (a Roman province which is now in Turkey) he wrote.

'There is neither Jew nor non-Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.'

Paul and his supporters eventually won this argument. Non-Jews who wanted to follow Jesus did not have to become Jews. Likewise, Jews, with the same desire, did not have to follow Jewish laws.

And so was born a new religion - Christianity, which today has 1, 700 million believers; male and female, black and white, young and old, etc.

Conclusion

Conclude lesson by asking the children to consider the ways in which they exclude others.

Challenge them to overcome the divisions which may exist within the class.

Notes

Some teachers may feel more comfortable exploring the theme of discrimination/division through literature. Although aimed at Key Stage 1, Tusk! Tusk! by David Mc Kee, can be used with older children as an introduction to this topic.