On March 23rd, 14 children participated in the return of our “Palm Saturday” program. Inspired by the writing of Gretchen Wolff Pritchard (Offering the Gospel to Children), the day included activities that helped the children to participate in the experiences of Holy Week. While there were plenty of fun things to do such as dyeing eggs and decorating cookies, the central activity was the small group Prayer Walk.
This year, after Bev Giarusso from the altar guild spoke with us about palms, our friend Allie the donkey from Mesa Farm joined us and walked with us into “Jerusalem”. We created tableaus to recreate scenes from Holy Week such as foot washing on Maundy Thursday, the crucifixion on Good Friday, and the Easter Resurrection.
As Gretchen Wolff Pritchard says in the prologue to her book, “I have found that children do not want to be shielded from the cross. Stumbling block and folly though it may be to grown-ups, to children the cross is the power and wisdom of God.” (p. 4). This program has an wonderful way of helping children to truly enter into the events of Holy Week in order to more fully experience Easter joy! We are so grateful that so many children took part!
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