The Vicar of St Cuthbert’s Anglican church, Over Kellet, Rev Matt Guilder, shares why they got involved with Education Sunday 2024…
As a church we wanted to mark Education Sunday and offer an invitation to our local community to join us. We celebrated the fact we are all lifelong learners! We heard from and prayed for those in the Church and in our local community serving in education. In our congregation we have a range of people working across education in many different roles and we also have several school governors too. We invited representatives from the Diocese Board of Education and local chaplains from universities and schools, to highlight the vital role they play within education but also how brilliant the Blackburn diocese is at supporting its Church schools. We had Bishop Philip (Bishop of Blackburn) share the story of why and how Blackburn Diocese began its focus on Schools and how it continues to develop in today.
In our service, we showcased the relationship between our church and our church school by the pupils sharing a song they have learnt with British Sign Language as part of it. Prayers and readings were read by young people from the Church.
It felt like a true celebration! But also a big thank you.
Why did we celebrate it at Over Kellet? Our church warden asked “Is there any chance…?” Well, after the success of this year, I am certain we will be doing it next year! It’s a great opportunity to gather multiple agencies and people to encourage them. We have already began thinking how we can invite more people to be involved and have more to celebrate too.
As a church, our aim is to support everyone in “following Jesus, loving and serving Over Kellet.” Diocese Children’s Work Advisor Sarah delivered a superb all-age talk based on the Feeding of the 5000, how we can learn from Jesus and bring what we have to serve him, and he will do incredible things with us and through us.
This was part of celebrating our school and the community but also showing how the Church is here to support the community.
We would recommend joining in with Education Sunday!
Find out more about Education Sunday.
Check out the videos and resources that were made for Education Sunday 2024.