Prayer Day at St Johns

On Wednesday 25th June, it was a delight to welcome Rev Sharon Read to Brinscall St John’s Church of England and Methodist Primary School. Sharon is the mission area lead for Lancashire and joined our school chaplain, Rev Karen Hilsden along with Bishop Philip North the Bishop of Blackburn, Iain Parkes the director for Education for the Blackburn Diocese and Rev Ben Clayton vicar of the local Anglican Churches. All had been invited by Mrs Joanna Owen, the headteacher, to join in a prayer and reflection day. Since Joanna’s arrival in September 2024, Joanna’s contagious faith has oozed through school life, including the development of prayer spaces throughout St John’s.

The Shining Flames, who are the pupil ambassadors for St John’s School vision, had prepared for the day around 20 prayer stations for the St. John’s School family to experience prayer in a variety of ways. The children had chosen, planned and prepared each prayer station carefully. From balloons to torches in tents to recycled rubbish there were numerous ways to encourage one another in talking to God.

After the children had visited prayer stations and explored some ways to pray it was now an opportunity for children from reception to year 6 to design prayer stations for their classrooms. The challenge was for small groups of children to work together to design a new prayer station for each half term from September. Lots of resources had been gathered for the children to see for inspiration before they set to planning and designing. In the afternoon the children worked across the school with older children and younger children together, helping one another in making their prayer stations. At the end of the school day, everybody was invited to come and explore the prayer stations that had been used throughout the day and also those that were made for the coming academic year.