A Suffolk church has hosted two family activity days in a bid to enhance the churchyard’s new ‘reflection spaces’.
Each reflection space at St Leonard’s Church in Horringer has its own theme, including a wildflower space, a bird watching area, an insects and beetles area, a plants and trees area and bees and butterflies space. The idea is that visitors can take a moment to sit down and enjoy the rich diversity of nature in the churchyard and reflect on creation. Six families joined the activity days, on August 12 and 19, taking part in a host of activities at each space.
Helen Woodroffe, Community and Families' Lay Minister, said:
“The children really enjoyed sowing seeds at the wildflower area. They then went and filled the bird feeders at the bird watching area – one five-year-old girl even painted one of our bird boxes. At the plants and trees space, the children explored the area, cut out their own leaf shapes and took part in bark rubbing. But the real hit was the mini-beast hotel. At the first activity day the children helped build the hotel while the second group got to open it up and find out who had moved in.”
As one of the church’s congregation works with rehabilitating and rehoming injured birds, the children were given the chance to hold and pet a pigeon and a chicken on their visit to the churchyard. Mrs Woodroffe said the family activity days had been a huge success and plans to run more in the future. She said:
“During the Sunday service between the activity days, the congregation went out to have a look at the reflection spaces themselves, each spending five minutes in contemplation. They really enjoyed it and found the project fascinating. The families who visited said they were interested in coming back to see how the spaces develop so we are planning on running more activity days in the future. And the church is now open every day, so people are welcome to come along and visit whenever they like.”
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