Vows and LII's pretend Wedding

LII have been looking at the topic of Marriage and wedding ceremonies in their RE lessons. These 'vows' have been written by the girls. The LII girls also acted out a wedding with the help of Father John.

I promise not to go off with someone else. I promise to share my possessions. I promise not to hurt my partner. I promise that I will love this man for the rest of my life. I promise to love you for evermore and to care for you when you are ill and to be faithful to you and never lie.

I promise to Love Him Have a good married life Keep the house clean To share my secrets To share my money To stay with him Never be bossy And to be truthful.

I promise that I will love this man like my family. I promise that I will care for him. I will try and give him happiness. *** I promise to be faithful and not lead you into trouble … I promise not to spend all your money.

I promise to my parents, to my brothers and sisters and the rest of my family that I will be faithful to my husband and never make a slave out of him. We will stay together always and love for always. I promise to keep calm when I’m stressy and help him whenever he needs me.

I promise to be faithful … I promise to try to keep all my promises To look after you and the children if we have any I promise not to take you for granted and I promise to be gentle, not bossy.

During their RE lessons, Lower II studied Marriage. They thought about why people choose to get married and learnt what is involved in a wedding ceremony. Here is Hattie's account of the wedding day. John and Catherine were the bride and groom. The wedding service went well; Catherine looked absolutely stunning! She was wearing a white dress and a long veil with a silver tiara on top. The bridesmaids looked lovely as well. Isabelle, the head bridesmaid was lucky enough to carry Catherine’s veil. After the wedding had finished and the photographers had snapped a few photos, it was time for the reception. It was a fantastic wedding and good luck to John and Catherine, probably still on their honeymoon in Barbados or Africa, something like that.

HOLY TRINITY’S EMPTY COFFIN from The Wey October 2008

Forty pupils from St Catherine’s Prep School, Bramley, attended a special funeral service in Holy Trinity Church for an old girl. The girls read a lesson and prayers, paid personal tributes and sang hymns they had chosen for Mrs Elizabeth Newbury, who died at the age of 101. Vicar the Revd John Bundock, who gave the address, used a broken pottery shell symbolising continuity and change and talked of life continuing after the body has died. The service was followed by refreshment for the congregation in the adjacent Parish Room. Before the service some of the girls had asked to see inside the coffin. John willingly unscrewed and removed the lid and most went forward to peer into the open coffin. It was empty. John explained: “Elizabeth Newbury was a fictitious character whose life-story had been imaginatively made up by the pupils when I did a “funeral visit” to the school. “The school chaplain, Canon Colin Tickner, and the head of Religious Education, Mandy MacVean, had spent time with the children sensitively introducing the subject of death.” Mandy says “After the funeral the girls were able to give their views and all were very positive. “We realise that this can be a very emotive subject but, with the right team, it can be very worthwhile. We sincerely believe that as educators we need to give our girls a chance to explore life’s trickier questions in a safe and caring environment.” Before leaving St Catherine’s School, which has a Christian foundation, all pupils now successively experience a baptism, marriage, Eucharist and funeral service as part of the RE/personal, social, health and education programme. All of the services, apart from the wedding, are held at Holy Trinity reflecting the close relationship between the school and the parish.