Here are three service outlines to worship outdoors for Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. You can download these as a PDF.

In the UK, we are hopeful that Holy Week will bring a slight easing of the restrictions put in place because of the pandemic. As rules stand at the time of writing, we will be able to meet outdoors as a group of six (from up to six different households) or two households together, irrespective of the number of people. We will still need to stay 2 metres away from each other and be careful with surface contact, but it’s a hopeful start.

The rule on meeting outdoors might seem like bad news if you’re desperate to get into your church building again. But really, it might be the best thing we can do at this time: to be right there where God the Creator’s fingerprints are all around us, where an awe-deprived generation can look at the massive and the tiny of creation and say “wow”! It’s the opposite of the tiny screens we’ve been hunched over for so long. Add to this the research which tells us how important being in nature is for our mental health, how the outdoors calms children and helps them play and how crucial fresh air and sunlight is for our bodies.

We offer these sessions freely to use as you wish. You could print and pass onto groups in the church, or you can use the occasional idea as part of something you’re doing anyway, perhaps something more like what you normally do as a church. You could also use them at other times of the Lent and Easter seasons.

Think ahead about what might work for your group and how you can make it easier in these times, for example by printing the Bible verses and handing out to share the readings, or gathering all the things you need beforehand.

Interested in outdoor worship? Check out our Worship in the Woods book of 10 outdoor gatherings.