With worship services and groups of all kinds currently suspended, ROOTS is offering free resources for people to use at home.

ROOTS is a partnership of denominations and other Christian organisations and has been publishing lectionary-based worship resources online and in print since 2002.

Go to: Resources for families; Resources for adults; Resources for Easter

 

Copyright

You are welcome to copy this material for use in your own resources e.g. printed sheets or web pages including audio/video recordings. If you do so, please include this acknowledgement to ROOTS:
© ROOTS for Churches Ltd (www.rootsontheweb.com) 2002-2020.
Reproduced with permission.

 

For families

Introduction

Happy Easter everyone! Wherever you find yourself and whoever you find yourself with, be assured that we can still find ways to share the joy of Easter – and it is perhaps even more important to do so.

We hope that these resources will give you the opportunity to celebrate together, but also to spend time delighting in God’s grace. 

 

Gather

Father God,
we come to you
because you turn doubt into hope,
tears into laughter
and fear into fearlessness.

We come to you
because on Easter Sunday
and on every other day,
we can say, ‘Jesus is alive!’
Amen.

 

Read

Bible story

Matthew 28.1-10: The risen Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and her friend, and tells them to go and share the good news.

 

Making faces

Beforehand, practise together the different facial expressions the people in the story might have made, such as: grief, shock, fear, joy, excitement.

Tell the Easter story, pausing at the points marked by asterisks and encourage everyone to make the appropriate expression for that part of the story.

 

Story: On the first Easter Day, the stone rolled away

Alternatively, you can tell the story using sounds or by acting it out.

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Activities for families - English		Colouring Sheet English		Activities for families - Welsh		Colouring Sheet Welsh

 

For adults

PostScript - a new normal - a reflection for Easter Day 2020

 

	In conversation with the Scriptures: Lent and suffering; Easter and joy
John Parr explores Lent and Easter, in conversation with Anne Stevens.

 

Live your faith

This week's Live your faith sheet for adults with Bible notes, prayers, a picture and questions for reflection, a live your faith action

 

Easter praise

Darkness, light,
angels, women,
cloths, stones,
emptiness and weeping.
All proclaim
this day,
first and last,
ending and beginning,
new life, new wine,
new body, new people.
Old clothes, old skin,
old ways, old habits,
left behind
to gather dust
while resurrection takes hold,
holds sway
and moves on the world.

This is the day
of resurrection.
He is not here.
He has been raised
and he goes ahead to meet us.
Story, dreaming,
past, present,
turn and spin
on this moment
as an empty tomb,
folded cloths,
bright angels
and faithful followers
declare Christ risen,
spring come,
new life for heaven and earth.

Glory be to God
for the dawn of this day.
Glory be to God
for the rising of the Son.
Glory be to God
for the fresh Spirit of life.

Amen.

 

Additional Easter resources

For all ages

The First Easter – A Robin’s Tale

 

For families

Easter gardens

Visualise and retell the Easter story

You will need: seed trays, one per person, multi-purpose compost, small yoghurt pots or individual egg box cups, flat stones or plasticine, small cut flowers, e.g. primroses, or flowering bulbs, sprigs of rosemary and/or shrub cuttings, gravel, oasis/foil, cocktail or lolly sticks, thread, scissors.

• Give everyone a seed tray.
• If needed, help people fill their trays half full of compost.
• Place a yoghurt pot/egg box cup on its side in one corner to make a tomb and cover the top with compost. Place a stone or ball of plasticine in front of the tomb.
• Cut a piece of oasis or roll a large ball of foil and use it to make a hill in the opposite corner. Cover with compost.
• Plant flowers and rosemary/shrub ‘trees’ and make a path to the tomb with gravel.
• Make three crosses by lashing the cocktail/lolly sticks together and stick them into the oasis/foil hill.
• Talk together about the events of Good Friday onwards, and encourage everyone to roll their stones away.
• Use the finished garden to retell the Easter story. Water the garden to keep the flowers alive.