Holy Week and Easter traditionally provide a wealth of opportunities for remembering, meditating and celebrating together online. Adults may set aside time for more intense prayer, study and service.
We will have Zoom meetings all week, bringing us an opportunity to share and pray together. Get information about those HERE.
If you are at home with children or if you are Face-timing or zooming with children and grandchildren during the COVID-19 pandemic, here are some ideas to consider during Holy Week and Easter.
Ideas for Holy Week When Face-Timing or on a Zoom Call with your Children and Grandchild
Gilliam, senior editor of Pockets, a magazine for children published by The Upper Room, shared several ideas to help families journey toward Easter together and then to make Easter a season long, rather than one-day, celebration.
Have a simpler meal together online. Fasting, one of the most ancient spiritual disciplines, is not appropriate for everyone, certainly not for young children. But simplifying meals can remind everyone of the solemnity of the week leading up to sunset on Holy Saturday. Simply eliminating desserts is an easy way to do this. Talk to your children about how giving up something we enjoy can remind us of Jesus’ giving up his life for us.
Read together online about the events of the last weeks of Jesus’ life in your Bible. Children who are old enough and enjoy reading can read some of the passages to the family. “Easter Eggs with a Difference” provides one way to read many of the pertinent passages with your family and talk about them.
Add the events of Holy Week to your family prayers together online. For example, you could pray, “God, we remember today how Jesus served his friends by washing their feet. Help us to serve others, too.”
On Easter Sunday, celebrate online together in a big way! Make “Christ is risen!” banners to hang around the house. Eat the same special food together online.
Other ideas include:
- Use an age-appropriate Lenten Bible study or read The Legend of the Easter Egg (Zondervan) by Lori Walburg.
- Check Pinterest and online blogs for Lent- and Easter-related craft ideas to do together online.
- Watch the sunrise together on Easter morning (the time of day the Resurrection was discovered) before worshipping together online.
When Talking about Holy Week with Children
During Lent, Holy Week and Easter, children may ask pointed and difficult questions about why Jesus had to die or the events leading up to his death and Resurrection. While parents should be mindful about how they talk about the details, children can process them when shared appropriately.
“Children are open to the cycle of life and the reality that everything has birth and dies,” said Melanie C. Gordon, director of ministry with children at Discipleship Ministries. “We only need to make it simple for them. Talk to them in terms they will understand.
“One way to engage children in looking at the cycle of life during Lent,” Gordon offers, “is through a camera lens by seeking out images that help us turn to God.” The Florida Annual Conference invites people to post pictures to social media that relate to daily devotions on their blog. This is an excellent way to use media as a positive tool,” Gordon says. Rethink Church is including a Lenten Photo-a-Day feature on its website.
Sharing the painful and sad story of Good Friday with your children can be challenging. “We talk about the day Jesus died, that he died on a cross and that it hurt,” said Mark Burrows, director of children’s ministries at First United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. “But we don’t focus on what people did to Jesus. Instead, we focus on what Jesus was doing for them — blessing the people, asking God to forgive, even blessing another who is on the cross.”
Burrows reminds parents “children can’t un-see images or un-hear words.” He continues, “I work very hard to be honest without being graphic.” During these conversations, it’s good to remind children that sometimes feeling sad is OK and that God is with us even in our sadness.
Easter is a season
To continue the celebration online throughout the Easter season, Gilliam suggested “creating a family worship space — a table, a corner of the family room, wherever the family can gather — if you don’t already have one. Decorate the space for Easter with symbols of new life — flowers, a budding branch, pictures of butterflies or baby animals (invite children to draw these or cut them out from old magazines), etc. In the days following Easter Sunday, gather there each day as a family to pray together and read a short passage of scripture about the events following the Resurrection.”
Another post-Easter Sunday activity is to practice kindness and helping others. The number of people who could use Easter cheer at this time is almost limitless and the joy of Easter is good news for all.