Easter in Orpington

Hello All,

I hope you are enjoying the spring flowers emerging at the moment. We’re seeing growth and blossoming here at Spinnaker Orpington too!

So far this term, Katie, Barbara and I have presented 45 collective worships at 11 local schools, reaching some 3500 children. We visit some schools fortnightly, some each half term.  The schools we currently visit are Blenheim, Chelsfield, Crofton Juniors, Darrick Wood Juniors, Farnborough, Leesons, Midfield, Pratts Bottom, St Pauls Cray, Tubbenden, Warren Rd. We’ve returned to two schools this term which we’ve visited in the past which we are thankful for, but there are still more we’d like to reach.

We are continuing to deliver our Spinnaker collective worships called 'It's Jesus' focussing on Jesus' actions and teachings, and what the children can take from them. This term we have looked at the parables of Jesus, and have had many positive comments about them from children and adults. One teacher said she really enjoyed hearing about the parables as they were new to her.

We mostly deliver collective worship, but sometimes we are asked to talk to a class about our faith, lead a lesson in RE or participate in a church visit. In December, I was asked to do a lesson about Christingle and Christmas for Reception and Y1 at Harris Primary Academy and this term I’ve been invited to the classes again to talk about Palm Sunday and Easter. 

We also work with Naomi White and Pip Allen, Children’s ministers at Christ Church; Naomi takes assemblies at The Highway school, using Spinnaker resources and Pip has joined us at team training. We are really pleased to welcome Emily Pearce as children’s minister at OBC and we’re looking forward to working with her at Tubbenden school. Last term, I led a Christmas worship for Y1 from Crofton Infant School at Crofton Baptist Church, and I supported Neil Coleman with Harvest assemblies. Helen Musson from Christ Church Orpington has visited a school with me to see an assembly in action. Katie hosted a visit by Y2 of Green Street Green school to Green Street Green Baptist Church with David Wood, with myself and other volunteers helping. We’re hoping to help with Easter lessons at the same school at the end of term too. 

It was great to share our work and be prayed for at the Churches Together in Orpington Vision Meeting recently. It’s so good when we work and pray together in our community.

We are in the middle of creating a new worship resource from September. Our working title is ‘Beyond Belief: Values into Action' and these new worships will bring a Christian perspective to all the popular and common school values, using Bible stories and passages to consider each value and how the children can act on them. They will be accompanied by original illustrations by Sarah Horne again.

Join us! Do you have a heart for schoolswork? Are you interested in joining us in schools as a volunteer? Do you have fundraising skills, and could help organise some fundraising activities for us? Please email me [email protected] or visit https://www.spinnaker.org.uk/volunteer.

Please follow our activities on the Spinnaker Orpington Facebook page which is linked below. If you'd like me to share more about our work at your church or group, please email [email protected].

If you’d like to sponsor one of our assemblies, please visit https://www.spinnaker.org.uk/sponsoranassembly

If you’d like to donate to our work, please visit https://www.spinnaker.org.uk/OrpingtonDonate

Please pray for our team and the schools we visit, pray that we can reach more children by schools opening their doors to us and pray for our writing team creating new resources.

Thank you for all your support!

Caroline Rous