Trinity Sunday ideas for families

Trinity Sunday is celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost and is a way for us to reflect on the fullness of who God is; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Pentecost deepens the Church’s understanding and experience of the Trinity.  This day began in parts of Western Europe around the 10th century. Some initially were hesitant arguing that every Sunday already honoured the Trinity. It is now celebrated by much of the Western Church from various Protestant denominations like Anglicans to Roman Catholics. 

How have you tried to explain the trinity to your children or even non Christians?

Simple Trinity Sunday Ideas at a Glance

Examples:

• Pray the Sign of the Cross

• Pray the Creed (Nicene or Apostles’)

• Share foods that show “three” (e.g. Neapolitan ice cream)

• Read or tell the story of St Augustine

• Read or tell the story of St Patrick

What Is the Trinity?

The Trinity is a term explaining the Christian belief of one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

We can see the language about the Trinity articulated within various creeds, the Nicene Creed, The Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed. The Trinity Shield is a simple visual way of showing what the Trinity is and is not. It helps us think about the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

These illustrations can easily lead to misunderstandings about the Trinity.  

A few analogies:

Water can be ice, liquid and steam but this becomes Modalism as God is not like water changing shape.

One man three roles, Father, Husband and Son is another form of Modalism God is not like one person wearing three hats. 

Three leaf clover - three leaves one plant is partialism God is not like cutting a pie into three slices. 

Each can attempt to show an image of the trinity but all fall very short of the mystery and theology of the trinity.  As a family we read a certain story about Augustine of Hippo coming to terms with this, which I will include more about below. 

Each can attempt to show an image of the Trinity but all fall very short of the mystery and theology of the Trinity.”

Why make a big deal of Trinity Sunday?

Because the Trinity is a central doctrine of our Christian faith that unites us regardless of Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox. It is also a teaching that causes confusion to non-believers and those of other religions like Muslims. 

Having a day celebrated as a family focusing on the Trinity can really help little children and also us as parents to understand the mystery of the Trinity. 

It is a day where we can practice wonder, worship and love.

“Having a day celebrated as a family focusing on the Trinity can really help little children and also us as parents to understand the mystery of the Trinity.”

How to Celebrate Trinity Sunday?

There is not one way of celebrating this Trinity Sunday as a family. It can be simple, quiet, playful or all mixed up together depending on your family’s life and stage. For us we are still testing out rhythms and ways of making them fit our regular life.

Where and When 

Keep this simple and realistic for your family life. Trinity Sunday as its name suggests will always fall on a Sunday so we try to fit it around our normal Sunday rhythms. It has some really fun ideas that can be shared but we don’t tend to make it as big as Easter, Pentecost or Christmas. 

Food

Food can be a simple way of helping children see the idea of “three” in Trinity Sunday. There is a lot of leeway and fun that can be had with Trinity Sunday when it comes to food.We had a type of three meat roast (Chicken, sausage and beef gravy).

We also then enjoyed some Neopolitan ice cream with our little ones, seeing the three flavours in one (chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. )

Some other ideas we may try in the future are to make bread and braid into a plait. You could even do a simple 3 meat or 3 bean chilli or even a 3 layer cake.

Games

We didn’t end up doing any games this year but you could do simple task games that need you and your children to complete three tasks such as (carrying cushions, building blocks and passing objects together) or even if you have enough people have groups of 3 compete against one another. 

Crafts

In the morning before church we printed off a picture of Saint Patrick from Saints Alive which our 3 year old loves listening to on the Hallow App. We then stuck this to our window, for people to see, we chose saint partick due to him using the 3 leaf clover as an illustration of the trinity for those in Ireland. Not as a deep theological identicalness but as an image. 

We also drew the shield of the trinity to put in our window and wrote out the Apostles Creed so that those passing could read it.

Prayer Structure

We took part in the corporate worship at church praying and singing to God the Trinity. We also prayed the Glory be prayer, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.“

As well as praying the Nicene Creed and Apostles Creed throughout the day to meditate on the theology of the three persons; Father,Son and Holy Spirit.

Bible Readings

Matthew 28:19 or other passages in the lectionary for this day.

Role Play Storytelling

It was very hot on Saturday the day before Trinity Sunday. This became a moment where our boys were playing with water in the garden and were playing baptism splashing each other. This is a good way to get them used to the language. As christians we believe when baptising someone we should say in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 

Also with one of the stories we told it was about a legend associated with St Augustine of Hippo who was wrestling with the concept of God and the trinity. He went by the beach and spotted a boy running back and forth from the sea with a shell pouring water into a hole. Augustine supposedly asked “what are you doing?” the child responded "I am trying to put the whole sea into this hold.” Augustine then said it was impossible, to which the child responded it is no more impossible than you trying to understand the whole mystery of God in your mind. Legend has it the boy then disappeared. 

Reflections 

For us, this is still something we are learning and shaping as a family. It doesn’t need to be perfect or complicated, just real and rooted in Christ as we grow together with our children.

Trinity Sunday has been a good day to look at how to articulate such an essential Christian truth which can often be scary and to just pray and have conversations with our 3 year old and 1 year old. 

In the future we may try to have a bit more fun and creativity with food linked to the number 3.