Good Friday Workshop

Just imagine a small, stone church nestling between two villages on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. It is a quiet, peaceful setting. Then a child arrives, closely followed by another, and then more, until there are 70 children waiting in noisy expectation for the fun to start.

It sounds rather unlikely, doesn’t it? But that is what happens each Good Friday at St Mary’s church in the parish of Embsay with Eastby.

Like many rural churches, we have close links with our village primary school. The school has about 150 pupils, but fewer than 12 of them attend either church or Sunday School. We wanted to offer something to all the children, not just those who came to Sunday School, but did not feel able to provide anything on a regular basis throughout the year. In the end, we decided to arrange an annual Workshop with lots of different activities linked to a major event in the Christian calendar.

You might think some of our decisions were rather strange. We picked Good Friday, which may not seem a natural choice for a fun event for unchurched kids. We use the church building, with all its Victorian inconveniences, rather than the school or village hall. The event is completely free, although children are asked to bring to food to share at lunchtime.

There is method in our madness. The date is based on the practical needs of our community. Christmas is hectic and many firms in the area work on Good Friday with Easter Tuesday as holiday instead, so families may be away after Easter. Our aim is to make a clear link between the church and the enjoyment of the day. We do not have a church hall, so we just use the church itself. And finally, the event is free because we want to give something to our community without asking anything in return.

The Workshop lasts for 3 hours. The children take part in games and each chooses two activities such as egg dyeing, banner making, drama, Easter cards, Easter gardens, and seed planting. They all make chocolate crunchy nests, listen to the Easter story and share lunch together before finishing with a short act of worship which includes a presentation by the drama activity group.

This is one occasion when it is good to overrun, because parents will arrive to collect children just as the worship is about to start. They will then join their children and friends to hear the Easter gospel in a church full of signs and symbols of new life which their children have made. That is a very powerful message.