Key Question: Is it better to express your religion in arts and architecture or in charity and generosity?

LO: Apply ideas about values and from scriptures to the title question

What does it mean to make a building ‘for the glory of God’?
• Show children some examples of Christian Cathedrals. There are, for example, 44 Anglican cathedrals in England, and many more globally – start here: https://www.easterncathedrals.org.uk/links/anglican-cathedrals.php. You can ask the Flickr website for photos of Cathedrals: there are over 3 million. These buildings have been created, often over many hundreds of years, to make space for people to worship God and to express in architecture a Christian sense of the grandeur of God and the value of spiritual life. They are places for wonderful music, weddings and funerals, everyday prayer, community life and – most importantly – worship. Ask pupils to select 4 photos they really like and cut and paste them into their work, adding comments about what they find admirable or impressive.
• Tell pupils the story of Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand, a beautiful building destroyed in 2011 by an earthquake. What should the Christians of Christchurch do next? Should they rebuild ‘to the glory of God’ Ask children in 3s to speculate their designs for a rebuilt cathedral, then show them what was made – a very ecological and earthquake proof ‘cardboard cathedral’. In what ways is this ‘for the glory of God’? Information and pictures here: www.cardboardcathedral.org.nz/
• Show pupils the ‘Tree Cathedral’ – a cathedral grown in Milton Keynes. Talk about what this natural ‘green’ place of worship means and why people love it. http://theparkstrust.com/parks/tree-cathedral
• Ask pupils to consider these 4 Christian ideas and prepare to write about why cathedrals matter to people who are Christians, and what cathedrals say about belief in God.

• In groups, set pupils a design challenge. If they were a team of architects, and a Christian community came to ask them to design a 21st century space ‘for the glory of God’ what would they design? This can be a one lesson activity, or can develop into an extended project. The concept is what matters.