Before the Easter holidays, many of our schools came to our church buildings for special Easter services and in Quantock Deanery the opportunity was taken to bring the story of Jesus to life in new ways this year.
Following on from Journey to Bethlehem last December, the Quantock Villages benefice were stirred by a comment from a teacher who asked ‘What are you doing for Easter?’. Using the Experience Easter resources from the Diocese of Gloucester their reply became an invitation to all three of their Church of England primary schools.
Experience Easter is essentially a series of six interactive stations that are designed to involve children in the story. With the guidance of 5 or 6 adults in each of the three locations (Enmore, Nether Stowey and Spaxton), small groups of Year 5 and 6 children from the 3 schools journeyed through the events of Holy Week in the church and had moments to respond with their thoughts, questions, prayers and actions.
Rev Eleanor King, Rector of the Quantock Villages:
"This is the first time we have used Experience Easter. It has been a wonderful resource to use and is excellent for empowering the lay to lead sessions with a picture of the layout to guide and words to use. We also included some simple craft activities and made sure everyone had something to take away. Working with small groups of children has enabled the workshop leaders to focus the sessions to the children’s knowledge. It was a great opportunity to tell the Easter Story that Jesus is alive! Ideas are already flowing for Experience Easter 2026."
In the last week of term, leaders from local churches in Williton and Watchet joined Chaplain Patrick Weld in leading Easter Services at Danesfield Middle School. The team brought the story of Jesus’ resurrection to life playing characters at the scene 2,000 years ago being interviewed by a detective searching for the truth.
The services also included an audience participation game ‘Play Your Eggs Right’, songs led by the school band and a reflection on the meaning of Easter by Rev Mark Phillips, Vicar of Watchet and Williton.
Go Team Adviser for Taunton Archdeaconry, Andy Levett reflected “As we seek to live and tell the story of Jesus across our diocese, taking opportunities like this to creatively share the Easter story seem really valuable, and the feeling here in Quantock Deanery is that it has been much appreciated by both students and staff.”