Good Friday at Seal Church

Good Friday at Seal Church is a busy day, with Messy Church in the morning and a still, quiet service in the afternoon, and in between I put up displays which try to link together the two. Here are some pictures from the day. Our next Messy Church is on Sunday May 28 from 3 -4.30pm.
The displays in church will stay up well into next week , in case you want to pop in. The church is normally open from about 9.30am to 5pm.

Annie having a go at the egg tossing challenge.

We made a cross out of heart shaped stamps in all the colours of the rainbow. God loves us all.

Some quiet colouring and a chat.

We made origami butterflies and chicks as we thought about Easter Changes. The caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The chick hatches out of a stone-like egg. In his resurrection, Jesus changes everything. Could we change a flat sheet of paper into a butterfly or a chick? It took a bit of concentration, but lots of Messy Churchers managed it!

We made junk model houses and talked about home and what it meant to us. Jesus came to bring us back into the heart of God. 

We thought about the colours you see in church at Easter - yellow, gold and white - and made a window picture by sticking things in those colours to clear sticky back plastic. The resulting pictures were all different, and all looked lovely. 

We made cockerels to help us think about the story of Peter, who said he would always be Jesus' friend, but denied knowing him three times before the cock crowed the next day, just as Jesus had said he would. Jesus forgave him, though. When we get things wrong we can always be forgiven. 

Marion, Jill, and others did a great job supplying us with hot cross buns and tea. 

Here are some houses. One with smoke coming out of its chimney.

One with stairs inside.

A block of flats.

A church - God's house.

Houses need doors. 

In the afternoon, our Good Friday service was a quiet contemplative service, with a chance to light a candle. 

There were displays around the church, helping people to reflect on the themes of the day, and often featuring things we'd made in the morning at Messy Church. 

There are some of those butterflies.

Mary mistook the risen Christ for a gardener, so there was a display exploring that, along with some of my spare tomato and aubergine plants. 

A display exploring the story of Peter and the cockerel.

The rainbow heart stamped cross turned out well, in this display about the ways in which the cross shows us the love of God for all people. 

One of those Easter colours crosses. The child who made this particularly wanted me to have it and display it rather than taking it home.

Some thoughtful responses to the question.