Worship
Prayer
As a community we create many opportunities throughout the day and school year for prayer. This includes staff prayers at the start of the week where we are blessed by staff members representing a wonderful cross section of church backgrounds. We regularly communicate together prayer needs for the school, individual students and our local community. We also encourage students to write individual and group prayers and to use these in our assemblies and worship services. These prayers have revealed a corporate heart for those particularly in poverty, and heartfelt prayer for those in authority in our city and world.
We have an active and passionate parent prayer group that meets monthly and uplifts the staff, students and local community in prayer. We also prayer walk the Blue Coat site regularly, praying that our space is a safe and helpful one and where students can ‘grow’ in every sense of the word.
The world map in the chaplaincy is used regularly to help students be aware of the world they are in and to pray for topical issues, natural disasters, terrorism, the environment and to uplift those in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Collective Worship
We believe at Blue Coat in a broad yet deep experience of Collective Worship, which allows students to experience a lifestyle and underpinning of worship and reflection, focused on Anglican and also wider Christian traditions. Rather than one only focussed upon liturgical or sung worship, we embrace worship widely as part of school assemblies, Worship Works (form collective worship times), formal and informal services on and off site at our partner churches and Cathedral, Worship Bands, prayer space events, staff prayer group and weekly meeting, Chaplaincy worship times and bible study groups.
Our assemblies and Worship Works sessions enable students to lead and engage with current social issues, giving them a Christian faith-based perspective and opportunity to reflect and discover by exploring the ‘bigger picture’. Such topics have included Fast Fashion and the ethical production of Palm Oil, including the Christian concept of stewardship. We love using the parables and words of Jesus to speak truth into today and increasingly look to our students to lead Collective Worship themselves, bringing vibrancy, groundedness and authenticity for our students.
Cathedral and Other Services
We greatly value and are blessed by strong relationships with the Anglican and wider Christian Church in the city, and these are well integrated into the worship life of the school including leading in person and video assemblies, Bible study groups, and worship bands on site. We traditionally have Cathedral Services at Christmas, Easter and the end of the academic year. Communion Services take place in Anglican Churches such as our Mother Church, Holy Trinity Coventry, and St Marks, Swanswell, alongside large Pentecostal churches that represent many of our students from Christian homes.