Taking the Next Steps - Averil Hiddleston: Mum, Teacher, Ngāti Mutunga

Taking the Next Steps - Averil Hiddleston: Mum, Teacher, Ngāti Mutunga

At St. Mary’s, we use the preparation material from the Auckland Liturgy Centre website to prepare for Liturgy of the Word with Children. Responses in te reo are listed on the website.

Some of our leaders make the sign of the cross in te reo Māori. This is easy to do, as many of the children have already learnt to make the sign of the cross in te reo Māori at school. Our next step is to print the te reo responses from the website and incorporate these one at a time into our Liturgy of the Word with Children. This will make it easier for our leaders and we will have a meeting soon to discuss our next steps and find out what support our leaders need. It would be fantastic to use more te reo in our liturgies with the children.

As Children’s Liturgy of the Word leaders, we are in a unique position to not only bring the Word of God to our tamariki in a way that they are supported to understand but also to deliberately teach phrases and responses of the Mass using te reo. By taking the time within the liturgy to help tautoko (support) our tamariki to use the phrases and responses, we are scaffolding their confidence to use these in the Mass and help embed te reo within the parish. We first need to ensure all leaders of the Liturgy of the word with children are comfortable with and committed to using the phrases and responses so that we can ensure consistency for ngāta mariki. Enlarged printed copies of the kupu-words may be a good visual aid, along with opportunity for repetition and the chance to practice the phrases and responses. An audio available on a website would be a great aid for us as we make this hīkoi together.