This week we invited the school leavers from Burnside, Gillas Lane and Bernard Gilpin Primary Schools for a special interactive service to help them to look back and give thanks for their time at primary school and look forward to their move to secondary school – putting their concerns into God’s hands.

There were five different prayer spaces:

 

 

Sorry

 

The children thought of regrets they had whilst holding a small pebble and then washed the pebbles clean as a sign of letting go and receiving God’s forgiveness.

Thank you

The children thought of people that they especially wanted to thank God for. They wrote their names on post-it notes and made a person from pipe cleaners to take home.

 

 

 

 

Please

The children drew around their hands and cut them out and wrote on them prayers of concern about the move to secondary school – symbolising putting their worries into God’s hands.

Jigsaw

The children thought about what made them unique and drew a mini portrait on a jigsaw piece – then they joined up all the pieces together showing how we’re all together but different.

Wow

The children thought about their ‘wow’ moments from their time at school and decorated flags depicting these. Wow moments ranged from school trips to scoring goals to being in an anti-bullying team.

These services were supported by the Prayer Project at Durham Diocese and inspired by similar services that were held for church schools at Durham Cathedral.

Find out more about the Prayer Project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dioceseofdurhamprayerproject 

A big thank you to the Diocese for the resources and support from Phil Togwell and Sharon Pritchard, to our wonderful church volunteers and to all the schools for taking part.