Experience Easter – Witney

Many thanks to Brenda for sharing this article with the District – we hope you can take inspiration and encouragement from it!

Our experience of Experience

Experience Easter has been held at High Street Methodist Church, Witney, for the past 12+ years as part of its outreach mission to primary schools in Witney. Experience is an initiative from the Diocese of Gloucester.

This year, 7 schools brought some 240 year 5 children (age 9-10) across 4 weeks of March. 

Numbers are all very well and can be impressive, but can, when not put into context, be meaningless. It was felt that what was more important was how the experience affected individual children. So this year, the leaders and volunteers listened out for comments made by the children as they experienced the last week of Jesus' life on earth. They did this by visiting, in small groups, the significant moments for Jesus of that week, culminating in the joy of Easter morning.

Moments such as the 'Hopes & Dreams' of Palm Sunday; meeting Jesus as the 'Servant King' as he washed his disciple's feed; sharing with Him the final meal, with the request to 'Remember Me' being made by Him; being with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane and feeling 'Alone': sitting at the foot of the cross to 'Share our Suffering' before gathering outside the tomb for the 'Resurrection' and discovering that 'Jesus is Alive'.

The children were asked to wonder about the emotions that may have been felt by the women and the disciples on discovering the empty tomb, on that Easter morning. They were invited to offer appropriate words to describe these emotions.

This was followed by wondering why eggs are given at Easter. In one final session, one child remarked that "eggs crack and if you crack things, good things can come out". 

Each area of Experience provides an opportunity for wondering, engaging, doing and reflecting. 

Whilst looking at a picture of Jesus washing feet as the Servant King, one observant child said they felt that Peter was protesting, trying to stop Jesus from washing his feet, by holding up his hands.

A comment made by a girl in the Sharing our Suffering corner, when talking about the suffering of Jesus and the crucifixion said, "it was a bittersweet moment". At the cross, the activity is to remember the suffering in the world in the present day. The children were invited to offer brief prepared prayers. One boy, believed to be from a Muslim family, asked "will saying this prayer turn me into a Christian?". He was reassured by the leader that "it's not like that", the leader offering to read the prayer for him so he didn't feel under pressure.

Musings from the Alone corner where the children were making small clay pots and thinking about putting their fears into the pots to entrust them to God, one girl said that she'd felt very peaceful while doing this. Another said that she felt God was close by, whilst a third girl was making a deep pot because as she told the leader, "God's love is very deep".

The team found sharing and reflecting on the insights from the children very productive, recognising what a privilege it is to be able to share this ministry with the children. They are looking forward to continuing the story with Experience Pentecost in May/June with the same children.

If you would like more information, contact Rev'd Brenda Woods by clicking here.