VILLAGERS in Denmead enjoyed their church’s innovative Easter activities, which included outdoor scenery telling the story of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Worshippers at All Saints Church also created an Easter trail, asked children to decorate rocks and colour Easter eggs, and gave out bags of Easter goodies, helping families to appreciate the Easter story. And a team of knitters also created a knitted daffodil arch that was hung over the church porch.

Their thinking was that Easter 2020 had been quiet and low-key, as churchgoers marked Easter from their homes in isolation. So the team at All Saints were determined to mark Holy Week and Easter in fresh, new, and creative ways.

Because All Saints is situated right in the heart of our village, people are constantly walking past. So they decided to use their grounds and gardens. They built on an initiative from Christmas 2020, when they created a five-foot Nativity stable telling the Christmas story.

Worshippers created similar, tableau-like scenes that would unfold the story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem, and the events of the Last Supper, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. They created props and characters to go with each scene and swapped the scenes around as they progressed through Holy Week.

As each scene went up, they also recorded a short video for their Facebook page, so that people could join in from home too. Young and old also visited the church garden to explore the Easter story for themselves.

Worshippers also decided to build upon another new initiative, entitled Jesus, Light Up Denmead. During the past year, many children’s groups haven’t happened in person, so instead the church has created Jesus, Light Up Denmead – a mix of events, activities and crafts that families can engage with from their homes, and as a household unit around the village.

At Easter, they asked children to decorate Easter rocks at home, and then hide them around the village for others to find and then re-hide. They also set up the Egg-citing Easter Colouring Competition, inviting children (and adults) to decorate drawings of eggs, and post them. They were then laminated and displayed all along the front fence of the church’s garden.

The church received more than 200 entries its fence is awash with colour and creativity. With so many entries, they announced ten winners each of whom received an Easter gift. Many locals commented how joyous it was to see the designs, and many children visited to see their artwork displayed.

Worshippers also created an Easter Trail for families around the village – a special route where children could look for clues to find out more about the first Easter. All who completed it received an Easter egg as a little prize.

And they invited families to pre-register for a ‘Bag of Easter Joy’. On Good Friday, they gave out bags to just over 90 families, each crammed full of arts, crafts, stories, and chocolate treats exploring Easter, and asking what is Easter all about? These Easter Bags were well received, with one family commenting, “this bag has given us great joy and bought us so much fun. Thank you for sharing with us the good news of Easter – Jesus.” To see more about these family activities, visit here.