Our Children, Young People and Families team were please to run an event with Engage Worship looking at how churches can worship all together using their whole space.
‘Whole Church and Outdoor Worship’ took place on Saturday, September 21, at St Stephen’s West Bowling in Bradford.
Sam and Sara Hargreaves from Engage Worship led the day, which included sessions on intergenerational and outdoor worship, and an act of worship in the church grounds to close the day.
Jo Young, Children, Young People and Families Team member and Children 0-12 Lead, said: “Sam and Sara encouraged us to see every congregation members’ preference for worship as a gift that we bring to the family of God to create richness in worship.
“They demonstrated how we can engage all our senses to worship; singing acapella, using gestures and simple sign language as we pray and using different points in the liturgy to involve everyone.
“Then in the afternoon, we went outside to explore God’s creation and try out an outdoor worship session.
“Sara led us in thinking about trees and phototropism – how trees grow towards light and gave us space to consider how we might grow towards Jesus.
“Then we walked around the church paying attention and using what we observed to explore what God might be saying to us; broken tree stumps sprouting life and apples rotting and seeding into the ground prompted the word ‘renewal’ as a word for the day and perhaps for the diocese.
“The whole day was great fun, a fabulous curry for lunch and gave lots of practical ideas to take back to try at church.
“As one participant noted, the day ‘made us feel that beginning whole church worship was doable.’”
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