26.10.2021
Living Faith Living History: School children’s parish projects on display in Christ Church Cathedral
Exhibition continues until November 11.
A new exhibition opens in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, today (Tuesday October 26). Living Faith Living History is an exhibition of primary school children’s projects about their parishes and schools in the United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough.
Facilitated by the Revd Prof Anne Lodge, Director of the Church of Ireland Centre at DCU and Priest Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral, the exhibition continues until Thursday November 11 and all are welcome to come and see it. It is on display in the north aisle of the cathedral.
Ten schools took part in the project: Athy Model School; Castleknock National School; Drumcondra National School; Holmpatrick National School, Skerries; Kill o the Grange National School; Kilternan National School; St George’s National School, Balbriggan; St Matthew’s National School, Irishtown; Springdale National School, Raheny; and Whitechurch National School.
The children and their teachers in each school completed their projects in spite of all the limitations imposed by Covid–19. The children in one school, Holmpatrick NS, actually finished their projects during lockdown in Spring 2021 without help from anyone other than their families.
As part of their projects, children explored the history of their parish churches. They explored graveyards. They found out information about local history of their church and their school. They also explored the current life of their parish. They interviewed people involved with the parish. They found out the activities that happen in their parish as well as finding out about the links between their school and their parish. Some of them also wrote prayers for their parish and their school.
Many schools did a local exhibition first before giving us all their materials for the cathedral exhibition. In fact, the children produced so much material that we have not been able to display all of it on the 18 metres of display boards in the cathedral. It is planned to tweet some examples from the exhibition every day between now and November 11.
Prof Lodge and all the children involved would love if you could visit the exhibition in the cathedral. However, do not worry if you cannot get there. There is a book of the exhibition contents currently with the publishers who are doing the design work to do justice to all the material the children produced. It will be launched as soon as it is available – we will keep you posted. Copies will be given to all participating schools and parishes.
This project was inspired by the Come & C project and continues its work. It provides primary school children in Church of Ireland schools around the United Dioceses with an opportunity to find out about their own parishes, to share what they found with us all, and to invite us to ‘come and see’ their exhibition in the cathedral.
The project is led by the Church of Ireland Centre in DCU in partnership with the United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough and Christ Church Cathedral. It is also supported by generous grants from the Church Education Society and All Churches Trust.