MORE than 1500 primary-school children and teachers will experience the nativity story though interactive workshops at Lambeth Palace this week.
For its fourth 12 months, Wintershall Education is presenting its “Travelling Crib” to children within the garden.
On Monday, children from Holy Ghost Catholic School, Balham, and St Mary’s C of E School, Twickenham, followed different characters from the nativity.
They first gathered within the Great Hall, recently refurbished as a part of the £40-million renovation of the palace (News, 30 June), and got a purple “pilgrim bag” for use to gather small tokens from each character they met.
A Roman soldier paraded within the garden; one in all the smart men explained the aim of following the star and his journey; and, within the Crypt Chapel, the oldest a part of the palace, Zechariah spoke about Gabriel’s visit.
In a big tent, as Mary was preparing for her journey, she asked the group about what supplies she might need, which prompted some endearing suggestions, including “baby powder”.
Lambeth Palace A shepherd leads the youngsters through the Lambeth Palace grounds
Two shepherds introduced the youngsters to their flock of sheep, saying that “God loves animals as much as he loves humans.”
In preparation for the animals, the top gardener, Lindsay Schuman, said that she “leaves the grass a bit longer” towards the underside of the garden, “because they prefer to have a munch, although they did must go over the formal lawn early this morning, which I used to be barely holding my breath about”.
The two donkeys, Denzel and Sam, were a highlight for the youngsters, who were thrilled to give you the chance to stroke them. The Traveller who led them, played by Trish Bonnett, said that she first saw a Wintershall performance in 2001, and “absolutely loved it”. She began collaborating in 2016. For her, it was “all about getting the [Christian] message on the market in an enticing way”.
Wintershall began its partnership with Lambeth Palace in 2022. Wintershall’s education officer, Lucy Hall, said that her “predominant hope is that the Christmas story becomes concerning the children’s story and their lives moderately than simply being a weird Christian tradition that happens which is all about presents”.
Making the story accessible for kids of various backgrounds or faiths can also be something that she considers. “We have an entire teaching resource that we link in with the British values of the college, and just generally, about how we behave towards one another. We’re the social and emotional skills of a toddler. They must learn how one can check with one another, how one can play to one another, and I believe the characters of the nativity are really good examples of how we behave and the way we communicate with one another.”
Lambeth Palace Children ask Mary questions
Ms Schuman said that the garden was a “therapeutic space”. “The garden encourages encounter, which I believe is incredibly powerful, since it’s not only encountering God: it’s also encountering other people.”
She continued: “It’s about sharing what we’ve came. And I believe that’s at all times been at the guts of the Archbishop’s mission, to share.”
Lambeth Palace’s special-projects director, Danny Johnson, agreed: “We are incredibly blessed and fortunate to have this enormous, big asset in the course of central London, and, actually, it’s wasteful for us not to make use of it.
“Some of those children, who attend central-London schools, have never even seen open space this size, let alone live animals and so forth. It’s a gorgeous solution to start telling the story of Advent, and leading towards Christ’s birth, but in a way that’s unusual. Hopefully, it’s going to stick with the youngsters and nurture something by way of that exploration.”
