This Easter we’ll be running a series of prayer spaces in schools.
ICE prayer spaces are creative, atmospheric, reflective spaces where both students and teachers step out of their ordinary school day and into a sacred space. By transforming a space like a library, the hall, a spare classroom or a community room within the school, the ICE team provides a place where we teach about prayer and let the students explore at their own pace.
We always finish our assemblies and lunch clubs with a prayer, but prayer spaces are a chance to show that there are many ways we can pray. In prayer spaces, we can engage all our senses and talk with God in ways that don’t necessarily use words – sometimes we pray with paint, chalk and music!
Towards the end of this half term we will be bringing our Easter themed prayer spaces into schools. We hope to give children and their teachers time and space to consider the Easter story and reflect on what it means for them personally.
Teachers and staff members have always commented how helpful they have found the spaces we’ve run in the past. In particular they’ve appreciated how they’ve observed their students calmly enjoying the peaceful atmosphere of the prayer space.
We also finish off our prayer space time with a short Q+A session where the children can ask us anything about God, Jesus, the Bible or the Christian life. It’s a time when we get to go a little deeper with the students than we might usually do in assemblies, there are usually some really thoughtful questions that stretch our own Biblical knowledge!
Our Easter prayer spaces will span the two weeks before the Easter holidays, hopefully giving the children a deeper understanding of this important season in our Christian calendar as they go into their Easter break.
