What is a Christian church?

*Oisin and Alice are in a tree house, decorating it with hand drawn pictures. *

NARRATOR: Hello! What are you both up to?

OISIN: We’re decorating our tree house with all our favourite things!

ALICE: I painted a dinosaur flying a space ship, what do you think?

NARRATOR: Very creative Alice! Did you know that for Christians, God has a house that they fill with special things too?

OISIN: God has a house?

NARRATOR: Actually, God has a lot of houses, they are called ‘churches’.

We see lots of different church buildings.

NARRATOR: There are a lot of churches around the world and they come in all shapes and sizes.

ALICE: So God lives in all these houses?

NARRATOR: Not exactly! Christians build churches so they can gather together to pray, listen, talk and celebrate God. They fill the churches with lots of things that remind them of God.

We zoom through the doors of the church to reveal the inside.

NARRATOR: Like this cross, which is a reminder for Christians of when Jesus, the Son of God, died to save believers.

A cross appears.

NARRATOR: Or the altar, where Christians can pray to God.

An altar appears.

NARRATOR: Even the windows.

OISIN: How does a window remind them of God?

A huge window appears. As the narrator speaks, it lights up to show an image of a nativity scene.

NARRATOR: These are special windows. When the light hits them, they shine, revealing a magnificent collection of pictures telling stories from the Christian holy book, the Bible.

ALICE: Wow!

NARRATOR: To Christians, these things help to remind them that God is always with them, which is why they choose to celebrate things like births, deaths and marriages in the church.

*As the narrator mentions each occasion, images come on screen to illustrate them. *