Calm sunny and bright—the perfect description of both the weather and the children when Year 2 made their annual visit to our Church on Thursday 17th March. Charles, our Rector, had obviously given a great deal of thought to planning a morning which both entertained and instructed the children. They showed great interest in everything they heard and six year old Chloe, when asked what she had enjoyed most about the visit, said “I liked the speeches”. A forest of hands were raised every time they were asked a question or were invited to take part in the role playing.
Emily and Ashley acted as proud parents of Betsy, the teddy bear, for her Christening, with other children taking the parts of Godparents, as Charles explained the significance of Christian Baptism. Later in the morning Bryony was invited to become a bride and (to the amusement of some of her friends) selected Jordan to act the part of bridegroom. They then chose the best man and bridesmaids respectively and Charles took them through the marriage service. A few children came to the altar rail to enact the Eucharist and some were able to try on (or hide under!) the chasubles as the Church seasons were explained.
The youngsters spent a considerable time looking round the church asking questions and drawing pictures of anything that interested them. Quite a few were fascinated by the history of our bell, particularly Heidi for whom having a go on the bell” was the highlight of her visit.
Others were intrigued by the organ and many of them attempted to draw it—some extremely well. Charles played a tune for them (another hidden talent?) and several children enjoyed trying their hand. Cameron said "I liked the organ because I had a little go on it"”.
Other comments were: “"It was really interesting because it had changed since my sister had her Christening",” from William; who obviously took in all that he saw, “"It was really good fun and I didn’t know there were so many things to see",” from Bryony; “"It was good find out about what vicars do",” from Marc; whilst Adam thought “It was good fun singing the song
The morning finished with all the youngsters once again sitting quietly in the pews, feeling very grown up as they found their places in the church hymn books and joined us all in singing a simple hymn.”. It was a truly enjoyable morning and it was good to see the children's obvious enthusiasm and interest in everything they were told. They constantly asked questions and were totally involved in their project. It was quite a sight to see so many dotted around the building, many of them sitting, kneeling or even lying on the floor, drawing anything and everything that took their eye.
I, for one, hope that this annual event will continue in the future and it would be good to see us building strong links with the school. I know there is a tremendous amount of background work carried out by the school staff in organising such a visit but I hope they felt it was really worthwhile. It is difficult to say whether we or the children enjoyed the visit most! Perhaps the last word should come from six year old Aaron: “Thank you for letting us come to your church. Please may we come again?”.