Advent – annunciation

On your marks

Collect a series of pictures of the annunciation (the National Gallery website is a good starting point) and some of modern-day teenage girls, pregnant girls, mobile phones, homework, iPods and fast food from the web and put them into a PowerPoint slide show.

Get set

Ask a teenage girl, preferably with a strong local accent, to read the script from the annunciation chapter of The Gospels Unplugged (pages 12-14) on to tape or to perform it live.

Go!

Play the recording while the PowerPoint plays.

Keep an image that you find particularly powerful up on the screen while you ask some of these questions:

• How did Mary feel when God’s messenger brought her this news?
• Have you ever had that feeling yourself?
• Have you ever been surprised by God?
• Have you ever found it hard to do the right thing?
• What do you admire most about Mary?