Media release: Back in time, forward in faith

With a floor of grass and a roof of sky, wide-eyed children made a journey of discovery amid the ruins of Jervaulx Abbey in north Yorkshire in May. Each day around 200 pupils explored the lifestyle of a medieval monk in Scripture Union’s second Lifepath event.

In the open air, excited primary age children happily became Lifepath ‘pilgrims’ for the day as they explored a monk’s life through games, art, crafts, music, storytelling, prayer and drama. Their ‘pilgrim guides’ and activity workshops leaders, all dressed in medieval-style monks’ habits, were drawn from a team of around 50 Scripture Union volunteers.

Alex Eckford, from Leeming Methodist Church, cut 1,000 pieces of wood so that children could make designs for his pyrography workshop; Sue Judd, from Northallerton New Life Church, who teaches interior decoration techniques, cut 11,200 squares of playfoam so that her workshop ‘pilgrims’ could make Jesus plaques; Jane Ball and David Paton-Williams, ministers at St Gregory’s Church, Bedale, taught small groups of children how to juggle; retired civil engineer Bill Mitton and his wife, Pat, travelled from Bingley with 1,000 hand-cut pieces of leather to allow children to explore Christian symbols and logos.

Privately-owned Jervaulx Abbey, was offered for use by owner Ian Burdon after Piers Lane, Scripture Union’s staff member for Yorkshire showed him pictures from a similar event last year at Durham Cathedral. With its grassy nooks and crannies, it was the ideal place to explore the Christian faith with a monastic theme, says Piers. “It’s a place of imagination where the sky’s the limit. Jervaulx draws imaginative responses from the children.”

And so it did from each small group of ‘pilgrims’ who took part in four activity workshops. ‘I didn’t know you could eat prayers,’ said one young pupil from Northallerton Junior School, who had just squeezed words of her prayer in icing on to rice paper. ‘I liked making a window out of different colours and it sparkles,’ said a small boy from Snape village school, pointing to his mosaic mobile made from dozens of pieces of coloured film, hanging in the sunshine.
Preparation for Lifepath involved volunteer soldiers from the Queen’s Royal Lancers, from nearby Catterick, who erected tents and marquees for workshops, provided generators for power and water for drinks, and set up staging for the event.

The 20 schools in north Yorkshire that had booked places at Lifepath, prepared through pre-event assemblies and a CD of songs to learn. Every participating child had been asked to prepare for their visit by writing out a verse of Mark’s gospel. These were stuck into a giant book to form the Lifepath Gospel, which will be available for schools to use in follow-up activities.

Vicki Farby, Head of Kirkby Fleetham School, said: ‘The whole school was really excited about Lifepath and the day more than lived up to our expectations. The children were so motivated by the experience that they wanted to be part of it straight away the next day!’

Piers and his wife, Fran, who worked on Lifepath 2004 with churches in north Yorkshire, are confident this can be replicated by other groups of local churches. Next year he hopes there will be six Lifepath events across the country. ‘You don’t need piles of stones and soaring arches for Lifepath,’ says Piers. ‘You just need a site and a story.’

The time and effort taken in planning and staging Lifepath is exhausting but the responses from the children are rewarding, says Piers. ‘One child’s prayer we found hanging on the Prayer Tree was enough to make the whole week worthwhile. It said simply, “Dear God, I’m sorry I didn’t believe in you – I do now”.’