It was a busy Easter at St Gabriel’s this year. As well as joining in the Cluster Seder Meal on Maundy Thursday, the Walk of Witness in West Malling and the Dawn Service we held our own intergenerational services on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
On Good Friday we launched what is set to become an annual exploration of Easter. Similar to our Messy Nativity held on Christmas Eve, the Service combined crafts, activities and refreshments, with a multi sensory exploration of the Easter message for all ages. With take home activities and bags, young and old a like joined in crafts, followed by a multi sensory talk which invited people to do things like hammering nails in to wood, share in unleavened bread and grape juice, before sharing an broken easter egg in recognition that the goodness of Jesus beating death is for everyone.
Easter morning our service welcomed visitors and regulars with hot drinks and pastries before we started our Easter morning worship. With a mix of songs, videos and even an easter egg hunt as part of our worship, young and old explored the message of the resurrection. As part of the service children and young people made giveaway bags and bunnies and were challenged to give them away to friends as the message of the resurrection is not just to be kept to ourselves. The adults were challenged to explore the resurrection as the start of a great journey that we are all invited on.
