300 Pupils from around the Diocese gather at St David's Church, Mold on Pilgrimage for the Year of Mercy.
'The Best Day in My Whole Life'
“I’ve never done anything like this before. It is the best day in my whole life!” - the opinion of one of the three hundred year six pupils who came to St David’s Church, in Mold, from Caernarfon, Holyhead, Wrexham, Holywell, Connah’s Quay, Flint and Colwyn Bay, as well as Mold itself, to make a Pilgrimage in this Year of Mercy – to spend a day in activity, fun, creativity, and spirituality.
The church was cleared of its usual furniture, and the huge open space welcomed children from 10 of the primary schools in the Wrexham Diocese. After introduction and prayer, the children were sent off to one of 13 different workshops. During the day, they visited three workshops each. Pupils were mixed together in twos and threes from each school, so their first task was to get to know each other, by working together. Many faced this with trepidation “I was quite nervous about making new friends and meeting people, but …. soon my nerves went. It boosted my confidence so much”.
Among the workshops; a drama based on the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, for the pupils to think actively what it must have been like to meet Jesus, personally: and writing a Haiku (three lines of five, seven, and five syllables) to make a simple prayer: “We came to the church, Full of people and pupils, God is with us all”. Some ‘Prayed with Clay’; others followed the CAFOD Stations created around the Lampedusa Cross; others played ‘Trust Games’; some pupils painted ‘suncatchers’ – small stained glass of the Risen Christ; some learned about St Winefride’s Well, 600 years after Henry V came on pilgrimage after the Battle of Agincourt in 1416.
Many pupils know the Mass only in their classroom, and is prepared for them. So, some pupils visited the sacristy to learn all the sacred vessels, tried on a bishop’s mitre, and even a white papal zucchetto, worn by Pope Pius XII, and also learned the liturgical colours. Angela Davies and her Hearing Dog, Dasher, taught the pupils to sign the Our Father. They were able to show the whole assembly at the end just how proficient they had become, just as those who had experienced the Big Sing, demonstrated a new hymn which Year 6 pupils will sing at their Leavers’ Mass next June. In ‘Living Stones’, pupils learned about living in Bethlehem and the Occupied Territories, underneath an eight metre wall, and the daily ‘gauntlet’ of the security checks by Israeli armed guards. The pupils sent messages of hope to the children of their age. The story which hit home hardest was how one of the Bethlehem children, invited by a Christian charity to visit Wales with his family, heard an RAF plane fly low across the Welsh hills, and screamed to everyone to run, and hid behind a car. He feared it was an Israeli war plane carrying bombs.
In the exciting Forest School, they made pilgrim staffs, leaf prints, and other artefacts from nature itself.
“All the activities we did were very exciting. I enjoyed writing letters to the refugees –I hope they get the letters we sent them”. “The Pilgrimage to St David’s was incredible!” “The best day ever!” “I made lots of new friends” “Thank you for this epic day” “It was amazing. It was memorable” “It was all one big journey. …… believe me it all paid off. It was a memorable day”. “I will never forget it”.
The “Day” was a gift of the parish of St David’s to the schools of the Diocese of Wrexham. Parishioners provided refreshments for teachers and ‘deliverers’ who all gave their time voluntarily. Planned and organised by former Headteachers, Carole and Mark Philpot, the day was fully supported in every way by Bishop Peter. As the third ‘Schools’ Day’ the idea originated to offer children something which was not normally available to them in school, and Headteachers find it a very valuable resource and activity, seeing ‘church’ in a new light. As one remarked, “Look, they are having lunch in mixed groups –not in their own school groups” and another “The children were given responsibility to make their own way to the activities –three hundred children all moving at once, and no collision!”
Teachers met with Bishop Peter and Fr Chris Jamison who both said “Here, in action in Mold is ‘the future of the church’ able to realise the need to care for, and welcome the stranger, the pilgrim, and the refugee”.
As the children left to travel homewards, at the end of their pilgrimage, they took with them things they had made, things they had done, friendships they had made, and most of all memories of an incredibly active and memorable day. A parent remarked “Normally he comes in from school and says nothing. Today he would not stop talking about it all”
The Headteachers echoed the children’s view “Can we do this again?” and the last word is a child’s view: “The words that come to mind when I think of it are Mercy, teamwork, social, trust, and most of all, friendship”.
Isn’t that exactly what Christ came to teach us?
“I’ve never done anything like this before. It is the best day in my whole life!” - the opinion of one of the three hundred year six pupils who came to St David’s Church, in Mold, from Caernarfon, Holyhead, Wrexham, Holywell, Connah’s Quay, Flint and Colwyn Bay, as well as Mold itself, to make a Pilgrimage in this Year of Mercy – to spend a day in activity, fun, creativity, and spirituality.
The church was cleared of its usual furniture, and the huge open space welcomed children from 10 of the primary schools in the Wrexham Diocese. After introduction and prayer, the children were sent off to one of 13 different workshops. During the day, they visited three workshops each. Pupils were mixed together in twos and threes from each school, so their first task was to get to know each other, by working together. Many faced this with trepidation “I was quite nervous about making new friends and meeting people, but …. soon my nerves went. It boosted my confidence so much”.
Among the workshops; a drama based on the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus, for the pupils to think actively what it must have been like to meet Jesus, personally: and writing a Haiku (three lines of five, seven, and five syllables) to make a simple prayer: “We came to the church, Full of people and pupils, God is with us all”. Some ‘Prayed with Clay’; others followed the CAFOD Stations created around the Lampedusa Cross; others played ‘Trust Games’; some pupils painted ‘suncatchers’ – small stained glass of the Risen Christ; some learned about St Winefride’s Well, 600 years after Henry V came on pilgrimage after the Battle of Agincourt in 1416.
Many pupils know the Mass only in their classroom, and is prepared for them. So, some pupils visited the sacristy to learn all the sacred vessels, tried on a bishop’s mitre, and even a white papal zucchetto, worn by Pope Pius XII, and also learned the liturgical colours. Angela Davies and her Hearing Dog, Dasher, taught the pupils to sign the Our Father. They were able to show the whole assembly at the end just how proficient they had become, just as those who had experienced the Big Sing, demonstrated a new hymn which Year 6 pupils will sing at their Leavers’ Mass next June. In ‘Living Stones’, pupils learned about living in Bethlehem and the Occupied Territories, underneath an eight metre wall, and the daily ‘gauntlet’ of the security checks by Israeli armed guards. The pupils sent messages of hope to the children of their age. The story which hit home hardest was how one of the Bethlehem children, invited by a Christian charity to visit Wales with his family, heard an RAF plane fly low across the Welsh hills, and screamed to everyone to run, and hid behind a car. He feared it was an Israeli war plane carrying bombs.
In the exciting Forest School, they made pilgrim staffs, leaf prints, and other artefacts from nature itself.
“All the activities we did were very exciting. I enjoyed writing letters to the refugees –I hope they get the letters we sent them”. “The Pilgrimage to St David’s was incredible!” “The best day ever!” “I made lots of new friends” “Thank you for this epic day” “It was amazing. It was memorable” “It was all one big journey. …… believe me it all paid off. It was a memorable day”. “I will never forget it”.
The “Day” was a gift of the parish of St David’s to the schools of the Diocese of Wrexham. Parishioners provided refreshments for teachers and ‘deliverers’ who all gave their time voluntarily. Planned and organised by former Headteachers, Carole and Mark Philpot, the day was fully supported in every way by Bishop Peter. As the third ‘Schools’ Day’ the idea originated to offer children something which was not normally available to them in school, and Headteachers find it a very valuable resource and activity, seeing ‘church’ in a new light. As one remarked, “Look, they are having lunch in mixed groups –not in their own school groups” and another “The children were given responsibility to make their own way to the activities –three hundred children all moving at once, and no collision!”
Teachers met with Bishop Peter and Fr Chris Jamison who both said “Here, in action in Mold is ‘the future of the church’ able to realise the need to care for, and welcome the stranger, the pilgrim, and the refugee”.
As the children left to travel homewards, at the end of their pilgrimage, they took with them things they had made, things they had done, friendships they had made, and most of all memories of an incredibly active and memorable day. A parent remarked “Normally he comes in from school and says nothing. Today he would not stop talking about it all”
The Headteachers echoed the children’s view “Can we do this again?” and the last word is a child’s view: “The words that come to mind when I think of it are Mercy, teamwork, social, trust, and most of all, friendship”.
Isn’t that exactly what Christ came to teach us?
