On a winter’s day, in early January, when much of the UK was dealing with heavy snow, ferocious wind and widespread power outages caused by Storm Goretti, by some weather quirk, the rural villages of Over Wyre had escaped such disruption. And so it was, in the stillness of the evening, youngsters from all directions, tumbled through the gates of St. John’s church Out Rawcliffe on a mission – to follow the star!
After re-fuelling on star-shaped snacks and juice at the ‘Welcome Station’, the children directed their energy into following the ‘Star Trail’ amongst the twinkling lights and shimmering stars hanging from branches and shrubbery.
Outside, the light was fading fast and extensive cloud cover shrouded the wide-open skies, but the little ones were aglow with excitement at the prospect of heading indoors and making their own lanterns from sticks, special tissue paper, some glue, sticky tape and of course, a battery-operated light bulb.
Under the guidance of Rev. Naomi, frameworks soon came together and were then covered in layers of wet-strength tissue paper. Some chose to add multi-coloured squares of paper to their lantern with echoes of emerging Tiffany designs! It was against this backdrop, that Rev. Naomi spoke about the journey made by the Magi, to follow THE star to find the Christ-child, how starlight, illuminated the way for them and chased away the darkness.
Testing out the lanterns under the darkening skies brought joy to the youngsters and adults too, who accompanied them. The gently glowing lanterns were both pretty and practical, fancy and functional. The steady procession of light may have illuminated the pathways, but hearts were ablaze with pride at their creations!
Some of the children engaged with sea-pebble-painting, sitting happily under the dark skies on a groundsheet, creating some star-themed designs for their lumps of rock.
Another experience which proved popular was the creation of earth candles. After melting some wax in a pan over a camping stove, the youngsters dug small holes in the earth, added a foil and a wick before pouring some wax in, leaving the cold earth to set it. Towards the end of the evening, everyone gathered round the lit candles in a circle, holding their lanterns for the God Outdoors action prayer:
We have come to Nature’s playground, to a wild cathedral,
where the trees lift their hands in praise and the rocks cry out His name.
We have come to meet God outdoors.
As always, the evening ended with the sharing of a simple meal, symbolic of togetherness in the Christian tradition.
Just as the evening came to a close, the cloud cover lifted and revealed some stars and planets in the skies overhead…sadly, too late for the star-gazing which had been initially planned, but just in time to complete the evening’s theme. There was audible excitement when Jupiter was spotted! With that, the children headed home, clutching their glowing creations, having stood by some radiant firelight, been dazzled by an illuminating Bible story and having enjoyed the sheer brilliance of God Outdoors.
The next event will be on Friday 30th January on the enlightening theme of Candlemas.
St. James’ church grounds (Stalmine)
3:45 – 5:15pm