Discovering attentive presence: children as agents for spiritual change in the curatorial of worship

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper focusses upon one of the outcomes from research into co-curating the Eucharist with children. The aim of the research was to answer a question where there is little evidence and because the topic is of direct practical relevance to issues in the researcher’s own work and practice as a parish priest in the Church of England. The primary data was derived from Participatory Action Research. Three sets of co-researchers drawn from children, adults from the local community and adult members of two congregations, shared their experiences without and with co-curation of the Eucharist with children. An inductive methodology was used in a qualitative, constant comparative and thematic method of data analysis. The data found attentive presence to be a unifying concept important to spiritual flourishing. Children co-curating worship found that their involvement in the liturgical action deepened the spiritual experience of some adults.