A Church has found a unique way of spending a legacy and wants to share it across our new Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales.
St Michael and All Angels, Thornhill, Dewsbury have regular visits from school groups and always found the ones that involved dressing-up were the most popular – but they struggled to find child sized vestments.
So with the use of a legacy left to them by Mary Thorp, a former music teacher at the school next to the church, they have been able to commission a full set of child size chasubles and stoles. And in Eileen Gaunt, a volunteer who runs the Angels Community Café at St Michael’s every Wednesday, they found themselves a very talented seamstress who was put to work on creating these new child-friendly vestments. On Sunday the vestments were blessed and commissioned for use during the Family Praise Service.
The vicar, the Revd Sue Clarke said: “We hope that through using these vestments and role play the children will enjoy learning about the significance and wonder of the sacraments.”
The congregation have been busy this spring, they also commissioned and blessed new musical instruments for church, Bible story books for the reception class at Overthorpe CoE Academy and – the most important item for their annual Teddy Bear Picnic, a water slide – and still had money left over to make a donation of £100 to the organ repair fund thanks to the Buggy Praise Families’ fund raising efforts so far.
Anyone wanting to borrow the child size vestments for their own school visits should contact Revd Sue Clarke on 01924 450746.