Wear your faith to share your faith
The Bishop’s Badge Competition
by Hannah Sandoval – Diocese of Sheffield
Everywhere we go, we’re surrounded by symbols. Even the youngest children can recognise the logos of their favourite brands and television shows, and many will recognise the symbols and icons that help us to navigate the digital world.
The Christian faith is also full of symbols. For centuries, we have used symbols such as the cross, the dove and the ichthus to share our values and beliefs. We might display a fish sticker on our car or a cross symbol on a necklace, to show that our faith is important to us and that we belong to a Christian community. Wearing a symbol of our faith like this can also encourage others to be more open about their own faith.
Spotting and talking about these symbols when out and about with your child can be very encouraging, helping them to see that they are a part of a bigger family of Christians.
In Sheffield and our wider Diocese, we organise a ‘Wear Your Faith Fortnight’ which takes place in the two weeks around Halloween. We ask believers from across Sheffield and the Diocese to display a symbol of their faith, and give out thousands of badges featuring different symbols of faith for Christians to wear.
Our hope is that by encouraging believers to wear a symbol of their faith, we can spark the curiosity of the people around us, and share something of our faith. This doesn’t have to be a complicated explanation – just, as St. Paul says, ‘a reason for the hope that you have’ (1 Peter 3:15). Children are also invited to get involved and wear a symbol of their faith, and talk about it with their friends.
‘What does God’s love look like?’
Bishop Sophie
Bishop Sophie Jelley of Doncaster is calling on under 18s living in South Yorkshire and Goole to help her produce a new badge for this year’s Wear Your Faith Fortnight (23rd Oct – 6th Nov).
‘What does God’s love look like?’ is one of the suggested questions to inspire design ideas.
The Bishop’s Badge Competition launches on Monday 5th June. If you’re a parent, teacher, or children’s worker in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, or Goole, your children are invited to send in a badge design for the chance to see it made into stickers and badges and shared with churches and schools across the area.
Discussing what your child might draw on their badge design is a great opportunity to explore your children’s ideas about faith in a new way. Even if you live outside of the Diocese of Sheffield, you might like to invite your child to design their own badge sharing their faith.
Here are the designs from last year - you might want to show them to your children to help them get started, and to discuss what each badge might mean.
Badges from ‘Wear your faith fortnight’ 2022
Inspiration
Designs can be based on anything to do with the Christian faith, but participants might want to take inspiration from the following prompts:
What does God’s love look like?
What does it look like to show love?
A story from the life of Jesus
Younger children might like to use the God for Kids App to help them think about the character of God. The lessons on ‘God is generous’, ‘God is love’, and ‘God is kind’ are a great place to start. Find more ideas for inspiration at www.arisesheffield.org/bishops-badge.
What should the badges for 2023 look like?
Taking part
Under 18s who live or attend any church or school in South Yorkshire/Goole are invited to take part in the Bishop’s Badge Competition. Entry sheets, the contact form and a guide to the competition can be downloaded from www.arisesheffield.org/bishops-badge-guide . The winner and runners up will be announced via email, on the Arise and Diocese of Sheffield websites and on social media the week beginning 10th July.
Hannah Sandoval
works as the Discipleship Enabler for the Diocese of Sheffield, where she helps people to explore how they can live out their faith in everyday life. She is also a teacher working with Deaf children who use British Sign Language to communicate. She is married to Jonathan and enjoys making things and being outside.