God in the life of a chaplain to immigrants - page 20
Reporting from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire www.oxford.anglican.org
An Easter prayer space for children by Margaret Kunzer
St Edburg’s is a small Church of England primary school with 150 children in Bicester, a town now famous for its designer outlet shopping village. We wanted to provide a time and space for children to reflect and respond to the Easter story. We used the Faces of Easter, from the Godly Play resources, as a basis for classroom discussion and used the theme of crosses to stimulate response and activity in our church. The inspiration came from Prayer Spaces for Schools – a growing national movement providing prayer spaces for children and young people. In December 2010 the Door reported how Catherine Clayton, a former Benson Primary School teacher, was working from an office at Emmanuel Church, Oxford, supporting schools to provide prayer spaces. The youngest children looked at the Gomez cross and adapted it to display nativity scenes. They thought about Jesus as a baby and now a man. They were helped to write prayers for their own families. Some older children looked at the Ankh cross from Egypt – this linked with their class topic on Egyptians. The children researched
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its history and discussed the pressures that are put on some Christians because of their belief. The oldest children had been doing an activity on the Second World War and so looked at the Coventry Cross – the cross of nails. They spent time making their own crosses using real nails and discussed what reconciliation meant, then and now, as well as thinking about God’s reconciling love through Jesus. We finished the Prayer walk with a wonderful ‘God’s Eye’ cross which many children helped to make. The idea is that the ‘eye’ in the middle represents God watching over His people in love, protecting them and guiding them into a Jesus centred life. For us, this colourful cross became the Resurrection Cross showing God’s amazing act. Giving children time to reflect gives a profound and moving response. The children loved the opportunity to take time to be still and many would have liked a longer time in the church. Our Easter Prayer Space this year will be in the Church of St Edburg’s, Bicester from 28th March. Margaret Kunzer is the Deputy Headteacher at St Edburg’s School, Bicester.
April 2012 No. 234
Inside Competition Win a ticket to the Soil and Soul Festival
Page 3 News
Results of the Door survey
Page 5
Spotlight on
Fasting and Feasting food at Easter Page 6 The tales of two churches How two churches are making an impact in their communities Pages 10 and 11 Comment Bishop John on The up and coming God Page 19
28/03/2012 09:18