The Christmas and Easter Story
an event for Year 6
Recently whilst in a senior school a 6th-form lad came up and out of the blue commented on his visit to the church some 6 years previous when he was in primary school.
This is what he later e-mailed me:
“I remember a lot of the things you mentioned. The mince pie making I remember was quite fun although I was too afraid to eat them, as I didn't think I would like them. I also remember there was a quiz or some sort of finding the clues trail around the church, which lead to a word at the end. I think that was Easter. Oddly, the things I remember most though were the passages from the bible and you telling us the stories from them. I'm not sure why but I remember them quite clearly, you told the story of Jesus birth …and although everyone knows the story, it was told in another way. At Easter as well, I remember you telling us the story of his resurrection. It's weird why I remember those bits though and not the activities as much. Oh well”
(emphasis mine!!!)
Over the last few years I have been involved with a local Church based initiative for local primary schools that has been very well received. Our heart is to see it develop wider and I wanted to let you know about it whilst you were at this weekend for your information and action if you think appropriate.
The idea is that a local primary school visits a local Church for a morning or afternoon to focus on Christmas (or Easter).
The aim: To provide a warm welcome to the children and staff who attend and to communicate the story of Christmas (or Easter).
In just one church about 9000 have seen one of these presentations since 1995. We have also seen this event develop in other areas and last Christmas similar events happened in: Altrincham, Bath, Bedford, Bristol, East London (Walthamstow), Fleet, Glasgow, Gravesend, Heathrow, High Wycombe, Hockley, Huddersfield, Keighley, Leeds, Liverpool, Maidenhead, Milton Keynes, Newbury, South London (Lambeth & Wimbledon), Southport, Spen Valley, Swindon, Virginia Water, Wales (Pontyclun), Watford, Welwyn Garden City, Woodley & Wokingham.
Recently, invitations went out to Slough schools inviting them to this year’s event and all ten slots were taken with seven weeks still to go.
Might this be something for YOUR Church and a school near you?? If you would like to see it in action (and are reasonably local) then I would like to invite you to come and see a session anytime from 2-6 March. There are two opportunities each day (10.00am-11.30am or 1.00pm – 2.30pm).
If you would like to visit then please do contact me letting me know when you would like to come. If those dates are not suitable but you would like to find out more about this event then again contact me and we can arrange a time to chat and maybe meet?
A Christmas presentation is also run in November. We are keen to see if more Churches would like to use this as a tool of making / developing a contact with a primary school either at Christmas or Easter or both!! As a Schools Worker involved with secondary schools I regularly talk to teenagers who remember well their visit to a local church for one of these events.
Thank you for your time. Please pass this on to anyone else in your church – network - contacts who might be interested in this. Look forward to maybe hearing from you in due course. See http://www.sloughbaptistchurch.org.uk/schoolsweek
Other areas where these seasonal presentations are currently happening can be seen on the Scripture Union main website http://www.scriptureunion.org.uk/62365.id
submitted by Wayne Dixon, SU Schools’ Worker, Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead
wayned@scriptureunion.org.uk
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