Halloween 2019

Sharing Good News Stories

Over the next five weeks St Padarn’s will be presenting a series of GOOD NEWS Stories from around the Dioceses. To get us started, here is a timely account of an activity from St David’s Cathedral last autumn.

It is always a complicated time of the year for churches and Christian parents and carers alike. What shall we do with the kids this Halloween? All of the children at school are preparing costumes and getting excited about the amount of chocolate and other goodies they can collect as they traipse around the neighbourhood trick or treating. Curate Sophie Whitmarsh talks about her solution at St David’s Cathedral.

In 2019 St Davids Cathedral decided that they would try something a little different. Instead of festooning themselves in all things dark, they opened the doors of the cathedral, for a night of games, food, dancing and worship. The idea for the Rave in the Nave in St Davids Cathedral came from Rev Canon Leigh Richardson, who soon put his curate Rev Sophie Whitmarsh on the case of organising an evening that would prove to be very successful in more ways than one.

The Rave in the Nave took place on the 25th October 2019 just as the schools started their half term autumn break. The week leading up to the Rave in the Nave, was one of uncertainty as people were booking and then cancelling, and it was looking unlikely as to whether the numbers would be worth it. However, we carried on and at 7.00pm on the Friday evening we opened our doors for the first St Davids Cathedral, Rave in the Nave.

Around 20 young people came to the event, and whilst this number wasn't huge, it was more than they could have hoped for, being the first time. The evening began with a small act of worship, led by Seimon Morris and Don McGregor. The disco lights surprisingly highlighted the beauty of the Cathedral and made it such a wonderful atmosphere for the young people to enjoy.

Next there were games, lots of games. It was most definitely a team effort, as members of clergy and lay team members from across the diocese worked together to organise and facilitate the games, which included, bobbing for apples, bottom shuffling races up and down the aisles, noodleloons, and other exciting games, that certainly managed to wear out the leaders if not the youngsters.

Then there was food, which was largely donated from Morrisons and Tesco. Followed by more games, and then some serious dancing in the middle of the nave. Dancing included the Cha Cha slide and the Macarena, whilst those of us who are slightly more liturgically minded (not mentioning any names), felt that we were lacking a smoke machine, and got the incense out… I have never seen so much incense being burnt. It did really show off in the disco lighting!!

The evening ended with some more sung worship, with the youngsters really enjoying the opportunity just to relax and worship with others around them. Unfortunately, it is looking unlikely we will be able to hold another Rave in the Nave this year because of the Covid19 outbreak. However, we are hopeful that next year will see a bigger and better Rave in the Nave.