PRESS ASSOCIATION / Danny Lawson.
We give thanks for the Queen’s dedicated and loyal service to her country, and for her strong Christian leadership.
We want to help you mark this moment in a respectful way as we enter a formal period of national mourning.
GB group and leader meetings/events
We think it’s important for the GB family to come together to support each other at this time. So, where appropriate, we recommend that usual GB meetings and events for young people go ahead – adding moments of reflection to activities so they can be delivered in a respectful way. If you feel uncomfortable doing this, please make a local decision in conjunction with your church leadership.
We suggest that events just for leaders or activities such as fundraisers should be postponed during this period and that some activities, especially in public places, could be perceived as inappropriate or insensitive during a period of national mourning.
We ask that no GB events or regular meetings should take place on the day of the Queen’s funeral.
You might also want to consider your planned social media, website updates and emails to members/parents. Is the content appropriate or should you consider postponing it? Nationally we’ll be sharing less on our social media channels and website.
Resources
We know it’s important to support your members and fellow leaders during this sad time, as people will be experiencing a range of emotions, and we have resources available to help you.
We’ve put together an evening’s programme that you may wish to use with your children and young people at this time. It can be downloaded here. Please adapt this to reflect the needs of your group and young people.
Our loss resource can be downloaded here and the activities adapted to suit your own context or the emotions your members are feeling.
You might also wish to adapt Week 04 of our Being Together resource, which looks at loss due to the pandemic. This resource is available to download here if you’re a registered GB leader.
We’ve also produced a special timeline showing some of the connections between GB and Her Majesty the Queen. This can be downloaded here and used as a discussion tool with your group. You can encourage them to share their memories of the Queen and what she meant to them and talk about the impact she’s made all over the world. From this conversation, you could encourage your members to respond by drawing a picture/making a collage/writing a poem etc.
You might also want to access other resources, such as these pulled together by the National Youth Agency.
What else can we do?
Nationally we’ll be sending a condolence card and signing the book of condolence. But there’s nothing to stop you doing this locally too.
You can find the national condolence book online here or there may be one local to you, or you could send a card to the Royal Family signed by all your members.
The Queen leaves a massive legacy and she provided a wonderful example of Christian leadership for us all to follow. We give thanks for her service and pray for her family.
