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."