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Life in the Spirit Seminars for Children
Kristina Cooper reports on a remarkable primary school which has just run Life in the Spirit seminars for one hundred of their pupils.
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We tend to think that the Life in the Spirit seminars are just for adults, but the experience of a catholic primary school in inner city Manchester, has shown they can be just as effective for children. Holy Name RC primary school is the kind of institution that makes you proud to be Catholic. Situated in the heart of Moss-side, infamous for guns and drugs and gangs, it radiates warmth, confidence and safety. The school has a zero tolerance policy and there is no graffiti, no litter, just exuberant but well behaved children who would be a credit to any school. The corridor walls are covered with colourful displays and the place exudes cheerfulness and achievement. Ironically the only grungy corner in the whole place is the staff room, little more than a large cupboard with a kettle and a few chairs. But even that symbolises the priorities of the teaching staff, which are quite simply the children. Oasis of calm A significant number of pupils come from the homeless hostel across the road, which means a huge turnover of pupils and lots of vulnerable children. “To end up there life has taken a very cruel turn,” says dynamic blonde headmistress, Cathy Gordon. “It can be domestic abuse or eviction because of rent arrears or family breakdown or being refugees and asylum seekers. All this is doubly traumatic for the children who will have had to leave their existing schools as well as being made homeless, so it’s not surprising that we get some negative attention seeking and other disruptive behaviour. But we never give up on our children.” And it’s obvious from the commitment of the staff and the general atmosphere in the school that they don’t and the place is an oasis of calm in many a harrowed life. Catholic spirituality is at the heart of the school, although only about half of its pupils are Roman Catholic because of the catchment area and government intake policy. The seminars themselves were the inspiration of Maureen Clark the longest serving teacher in the school who teaches Year 3. Two years ago, Maureen was part of a group of parishioners from Our Lady’s parish, Moss-side, who were taken by their parish priest Fr Pat Deegan to the New Dawn conference. This experience had a dramatic impact on her faith, bringing it alive in a new way. Praising the Lord in the classroom On her return Maureen decided to share something of what she had discovered with the children of her class. Thus she would end each school day with 20 minutes of prayer and praise, and the children would sing along to the charismatic choruses of a music tape and pray. Then last autumn, Fr Pat decided to run “This Promise is for You”, the video seminar series with talks by Charles Whitehead and Michelle Moran, which proclaim the gospel message and encourages people to open their lives to the power of the Holy Spirit. Maureen and other members of the school, Liz and Claire were among the group who did this. The seminars were a great success and Fr Pat, impressed by Maureen’s remarkable teaching and spiritual gifts, and by the way her children were responding to her daily prayer and praise sessions encouraged her to adapt the seminar material for the children of the school. Adapting This Promise is for You for children Using the framework of “This promise is for You” programme and following its themes Maureen created a little booklet for the children to work through, using appropriate examples. She comments, “I transferred some of the readings so that the message came out of pictures instead as the children tend to be more visual at this age, and I adapted it generally to their experience of life.” She also devised a series of activities that involved drama and dance to explain the gospel message to the children and about the Holy Spirit. This included setting up a mock TV station with imaginary interviews conducted with some of the people Jesus had helped and cured. One of the most powerful sessions was an amazing poem that the children composed themselves about how they felt about life, their anger and fear and the difference the Holy Spirit made to them, which she set to music and had them dance to. What would the parents say? Maureen then approached the headmistress and Chair of Governors Majorie Bell with her idea. Cathy comments, “At first when Maureen suggested it I had reservations because of the various faiths within the school and I wondered how the parents would react, particularly with things like being prayed over.” But when Cathy wrote to them giving them the option of withdrawing their children if they wished, none of them did so, not even the Moslem parents. It was decided to offer the seminars for all the pupils aged 7-11, about 100 in total. Maureen bravely volunteered to do them on Friday afternoons, a notoriously difficult time to do anything in primary schools from a discipline point of view. She was also given permission to take the older pupils out of their classrooms for half an hour on Thursdays so they could learn the praise songs, which her own class and Year 4 had mastered over the previous year, and fully participate in the sessions. During the six weeks of the seminar period, Maureen opened her classroom half an hour earlier each morning for any children who wanted to come and pray and be with God. About twenty five children availed themselves of this every day, which was quite extraordinary, as time keeping is not a strong point with many of the children. Maureen comments, “Even the boys who adored football would come in for five minutes and sit in the peace before going out to play football.” On the fifth week both the children and parents were offered the chance to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Fr Pat, as the school chaplain, felt in the light of its sacramental link it was wise to only offer this to Baptised Christian children, and once again with parental consent. Parents were also invited to attend the event themselves if they wanted. Many of those who came had tears in their eyes as they watched this and saw the solemnity with which their children participated. Change in the children since the seminars Cathy Gordon says the change in some of the children since then has been remarkable, particularly with one boy, who has behavioural problems and considers himself the hard man of the school. She comments, “I was struck during the praise and worship time to see him so engaged in the music, which is not like him.” She was even more surprised a few days later to discover him crying in the corridor, as he is someone who rarely shows any emotion. When she asked what was wrong he said he wanted to go and say sorry to one of the teachers because of his behaviour. This too was a first, as he had never been remorseful about anything he did in the past. Since then others have noticed in him a new eagerness to please. Cathy says she has sensed a new sense of calm generally in the school and all the staff were amazed at how well the children had behaved during the seminars and their levels of attention. She comments, “There is a new calmness and openness among everyone. We have always talked about community but now you feel the children understand the words you are saying and there is a greater empathy all round.” “We can change too…” The children whom I spoke to confirmed this and were very enthusiastic about their experience. Ben commented, “When you are singing it makes you feel near to God.” And Jenny said, “ I think it should have lasted longer.” Another explained, “You don’t want to start fidgeting because you feel nice and calm.” One little girl, whose brother had recently been murdered, said, “Every week the music was peaceful and it made us feel calm, joyful and generous.” Leonard, another boy commented, “When you are in the hall you are still in God’s home, even though you are not in church. If you have done bad things you prayed for forgiveness and it makes you feel better. Zacheus changed when he met Jesus just like we can change too.” Two parents, Mrs Bygrave and Mrs Rowe commented that they sensed a real presence of the Holy Spirit and that each week the presence became stronger. Already one Catholic head teacher who has links with Our Lady’s parish has shown interest in introducing the seminars in her school and Maureen believes that their experience could be a template for other schools too. Due to the children and parents requesting a continuation of the Friday afternoon sessions Maureen is inviting them to continue to come together to praise and pray. Child orientated ‘meditative encounters with Jesus’ based on the Gospels are being prepared for these sessions. Those who would like to know more should contact her at Holy Name RC Primary School 0161 226 6303
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