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Parish investment for visiting school groups

by
20 June 2014

by a staff reporter

SUE CLARKE

For Family Praise: seamstress Eileen Gaunt with the children's vestments, worn by Adam, James and Amy 

For Family Praise: seamstress Eileen Gaunt with the children's vestments, worn by Adam, James and Amy 

A CHURCH in West Yorkshire has spent a legacy it was left on making a set of extra-small vestments to allow school children to play at dressing up as a priest.

The church, St Michael and All Angels, Thornhill, in Dewsbury, regularly hosts school visits, and has found that dressing up is the most popular activity. The PCC decided to use a small legacy left to them by a former music teacher to commission a child-sized set of chasubles and stoles.

The £300 legacy was left to the church in the early 1970s in the will of Mary Thorpe, to buy brocade altar frontals. The church was re-ordered, however, and altar frontals are no longer used, so the church's legal adviser agreed that the money could be used to commission the vestments.

The Priest-in-Charge, the Revd Sue Clarke, blessed the new set of vestments at a special service. She said: "The children always enjoy dressing up when they come into church. We already had historic costumes to match the different ages of change within the church, and we felt the significance, awe, and wonder of celebrating the sacraments would really come alive for the children as they role-play being the priest. We hope that, through using these vestments and role play, children will enjoy learning about the significance and wonder of the sacraments."

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