Ethos Education

Capture the Flag: Where is God?

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Assembly Objective:

  • Where is God? This assembly explores what the Bible teaches about God: his transcendence (the belief that God exists beyond the world that we know and experience) and immanence (the belief that God exists within the world that we know and experience).

Film:

  • Capture the Flag (Paramount Pictures, certificate PG), click here to buy the DVD online.

Bible:

Supporting Values Education:

  • There exists a wide variety of beliefs about God. This assembly seeks to foster within all children mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

OPENING ACTIVITY

Name that Flag (multiple choice quiz)

Download and use slides 1-10 of the Where is God? PowerPoint.

  • Can the children correctly identify the flags of eight different countries?

FILM CLIP ONE

  • Play the clip from Capture the Flag (Paramount Pictures, 2015) certificate PG
    • Start time: 00:47:02 (Scott Goldwing says, ‘Let’s go to the Moon’)
    • End time: 00:49:22 (End of lift-off sequence)
    • Clip length: 2 minutes and 20 seconds
  • If you cannot play the clip, say instead; Scott Goldwing gives the command to launch. He checks that all systems are ready to go. Members of his veteran mission control team each responds in turn by saying, ‘Go!’ Amy starts panicking but Mike manages to calm her down by reminding her that she will be the first woman on the Moon. All three astronauts climb into their space suits. Amy finds that Igor, Marty’s lizard, is hiding in her suit. Meanwhile, police cars are rushing to the launch site of Richard Carson’s rocket. The count down from ten to zero begins. Both rockets launch simultaneously. The police arrive too late and many of their vehicles are flipped over by the force from the launch of Carson’s rocket. Both crews are excited to be on their way to the Moon. They scream and cheer. Only Frank remains calm.

FILM CLIP TWO

  • Play the clip from Capture the Flag (Paramount Pictures, 2015) certificate PG
    • Start time: 01:24:17 (Footprints on the surface of the moon)
    • End time: 01:26:23 (Black out)
    • Clip length: 2 minutes and 6 seconds
  • If you cannot play the clip, instead say; Frank, Mike and Amy accomplish their mission of capturing the flag from Richard Carson. But instead of taking it to Earth with them, they re-plant it, making a pledge that the Moon belongs to all of humankind. They then return to Earth. Mike is re-united with his family, Amy is reunited with her family (who arrive on three helicopters) and Marty is reunited with Igor. Most importantly of all, Frank is reconciled with his son (Mike’s father). The film ends with a shot of them hugging on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

TALK

Scripted Talk

Download the Where is God? PowerPoint for use with this talk.

  • [PowerPoint slide 1]
    • Welcome, everyone, to this assembly. Our theme this morning is Where is God? It is based on the film, Capture the Flag. So let’s begin first by playing a short quiz called Name that Flag.
  • [PowerPoint slides 2 – 10]
    • Allow children to guess the name of the country associated with each flag. Allow them to tell you anything else they know about each country.
  • [PowerPoint slide 11]
    • Americans are very proud of their flag and, if you ever visit the USA, you will see it flying everywhere. The USA flag also flies over USA embassies and military bases right across the world. The most unusual place where the USA flag flies is not on Earth but on the Moon. The first USA flag was planted on the Moon in 1969 and between then and 1972, it was joined by another five USA flags. Each flag cost about £25 in today’s prices and was made of nylon. It is believed that all but one of the flags are still standing although all of them have lost their colour and are just plain white. When USA astronauts planted their flags on the Moon they didn’t do it to claim the Moon for America but, ‘for all mankind’.
  • [PowerPoint slide 12]
    • Capture the Flag is an animated film that takes as the basis for its story the first Moon landing in 1969. It imagines that, almost fifty years later, an unscrupulous business man, Richard Carson, plans to return to the Moon, destroy the first USA flag planted on it and claim the Moon for himself. NASA plans a rival mission to the Moon to ‘capture the flag’ before Richard Carson can destroy it. In his rocket, Richard Carson is joined by his useless side-kick. Following a series of mishaps, the crew of the NASA rocket consists of Frank Goldwing, a retired astronaut, his grandson Mike and his friend Amy. Scott Goldwing, Frank’s son and Mike’s father, is Head of Mission Control. The race to the Moon is on!
    • Play the first clip from Capture the Flag (Paramount Pictures, 2015) certificate PG
      • Start time: 00:47:02 (Scott Goldwing says, ‘Let’s go to the Moon’)
      • End time: 00:49:22 (End of lift-off sequence)
      • Clip length: 2 minutes and 20 seconds
    • If you cannot play this clip from the DVD, say instead; Scott Goldwing gives the command to launch. He checks that all systems are ready to go. Members of his veteran mission control team each responds in turn by saying, ‘Go!’ Amy starts panicking but Mike manages to calm her down by reminding her that she will be the first woman on the Moon. All three astronauts climb into their space suits. Amy finds that Igor, Marty’s lizard, is hiding in her suit. Meanwhile, police cars are rushing to the launch site of Richard Carson’s rocket. The count down from ten to zero begins. Both rockets launch simultaneously. The police arrive too late and many of their vehicles are flipped over by the force from the launch of Carson’s rocket. Both crews are excited to be on their way to the Moon. They scream and cheer. Only Frank remains calm.
  • [PowerPoint slide 13]
    • The original race to the Moon was between the USA and the USSR, a state made up of a lot of countries, the largest of which was Russia. In 1961, they beat the USA in putting the first person into space.
  • [PowerPoint slide 14]
    • His name was Yuri Gagarin. He was a Christian but the official religion of the USSR was atheism. Speaking about Gagarin’s experience in space, Nikita Khrushchev President of the USSR said, ‘Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any god there.’ What do the children make of this quote? In their opinion, where does God live?
  • [PowerPoint slide 15]
    • Throughout history and still today, people of many different cultures think of God or the gods as living in the sky. [Ask the children to think of examples from history (the Mayans, the Greeks) and modern day (footballers!)] In many verses, the Bible also conveys this idea. For example:
  • [PowerPoint slide 16]
    • Read Isaiah 40:22.
  • [PowerPoint slide 17]
    • Read Deuteronomy 26:15.
    • Ask the children for their responses to these Bible verses.
  • [PowerPoint slide 18]
    • For most Christians, such verses in the Bible about God living in the sky are metaphors, expressing beliefs about God’s ‘transcendence’. This is a big word to describe the belief that God exists outside or beyond the world we experience.
  • [PowerPoint slide 19]
    • The opposite of ‘transcendence’ is ‘immanence’.
    • Can the children guess what this means? Immanence is the belief that God exists within the world that we know and experience.
  • [PowerPoint slide 20]
    • For Christians, the greatest example of God’s immanence is when God became a man in the person of Jesus and experienced everything that we experience. This belief is expressed well in John 1:14. Read the verse.
  • [PowerPoint slide 21]
    • Whilst some Christians focus on God’s immanence and others focus on God’s transcendence, most Christians follow the example of the Bible and are mindful of both. In this way, they remember God and are also concerned with things that are happening on Earth.
  • [PowerPoint slide 22]
    • In the film Capture the Flag, the audience is not just concerned about the events on the Moon but also with events on the Earth. After being rejected for the first lunar mission, Frank Goldwing, Mike’s grandfather, had abandoned his family. Mike hopes that by involving him with this new mission, his father and grandfather will be reconciled.
    • Play the second clip from Capture the Flag (Paramount Pictures, 2015) certificate PG
      • Start time: 01:24:17 (Footprints on the surface of the moon)
      • End time: 01:26:23 (Black out)
      • Clip length: 2 minutes and 6 seconds
    • If you cannot play the clip, instead say; Frank, Mike and Amy accomplish their mission of capturing the flag from Richard Carson. But instead of taking it to Earth with them, they re-plant it, making a pledge that the Moon belongs to all of humankind. They then return to Earth. Mike is re-united with his family, Amy is re-united with her family (who arrive on three helicopters) and Marty is reunited with Igor. Most importantly of all, Frank is reconciled with his son (Mike’s father). The film ends with a shot of them hugging on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Headings and Bullets

  • [PowerPoint slide 1]
    • Welcome.
  • [PowerPoint slides 2 – 10]
    • Allow children to guess the name of the country associated with each flag. Allow them to tell you anything else they know about each country.
  • [PowerPoint slide 11]
    • Flags on the Moon.
    • Six flags made of nylon.
    • Each cost about £25 in today’s prices.
    • Planted between 1969 – 1972.
    • All, but one, still standing.
    • All now bleached white.
  • [PowerPoint slide 12]
    • Capture the Flag.
    • Play first film clip.
  • [PowerPoint slide 13]
    • The original space race.
  • [PowerPoint slide 14]
    • Yuri Gagarin.
  • [PowerPoint slide 15]
    • God in the sky.
  • [PowerPoint slide 16]
    • Isaiah 40:22.
  • [PowerPoint slide 17]
    • Deuteronomy 26:15.
  • [PowerPoint slide 18]
    • Transcendence.
    • The belief that God exists beyond the world that we know and experience.
  • [PowerPoint slide 19]
    • Immanence.
    • The belief that God exists within the world that we know and experience.
  • [PowerPoint slide 20]
    • John 1:14.
  • [PowerPoint slide 21]
    • Transcendence and immanence.
  • [PowerPoint slide 22]
    • Capture the Flag.
    • Play second film clip.

Photo Copyright for Where is God? PowerPoint: Slide 1 earth and clouds iStockphoto.com, DVD picture by IMDB (also for slide 12 and 22) / Slide 2 Malene Thyssen / Slide 3 Marc Mongenet / Slide 4 S Kopp / Slide 5 Public domain / Slide 6 Public domain / Slide 7 Public domain / Slide 8 Public domain / Slide 9 Marc Mongenet / Slide 10 Public domain / Slide 11 Pixabay.com / Slide 13 USSR flag Cmapm, USA flag as per slide 10 / Slide 14 Dencey / Slide 15 Pixabay.com / Slides 16, 18, 19, 21 iStockphoto.com / Slide 17 PikiWiki / Slide 20 LUMO Project 

RESPOND

Reflection

  • What do you believe about God?
  • Where do you believe that God lives?
  • Why do you think that Christians believe it is important to think of God as both transcendent and immanent?
  • When you think about the infinity of space, how do you feel? Are there any other experiences that make you feel this way?
  • Would you like to go into space? If yes, why? If no, why not?
  • The flags and footprints planted by the men who visited the Moon are still there. When you think about this, how do you feel?
  • President Khrushchev said that Yuri Gagarin had not seen God in space. What does this tell you about Khrushchev’s belief about God? Does Gagarin’s experience in space prove or disprove God’s existence?
  • Yuri Gagarin said, ‘Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!’ What can you and your class do to preserve and increase the beauty of our planet?

Prayer

  • The words of the Lord’s Prayer / The Our Father perfectly combine the contrasting beliefs about God’s immanence and transcendence.

YOU WILL NEED:

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