Candlemas
Candlemas, on 2nd February, is a celebration sometimes called “The Presentation” – because it is inspired by the story in Luke 2:22-40, at the end of the Christmas narrative.
The baby Jesus is presented in the temple and Simeon and Anna recognise him as “a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.” The event even finds its way into a Christmas carol: “Angels from the Realms of Glory” in which our very own James Montgomery (1771-1854…and, yes, as in “the JMAT Trust”) wrote”:
Saints before the altar bending,
Watching long in hope and fear,
Suddenly the Lord, descending,
In his temple shall appear.
Come and worship,
Worship Christ, the new-born King.
In school we can declare this as the fullest end of the Christmas season – so the journey that began when we lit that first Advent candle and looked forward to the coming of Christ, ends on a day when we remember him joining his worshipping community.
One thing we can do on this day is have a few thoughts about candles. I’m sure the science lead would have a good few ideas, as would art, but I’m thinking here of collective worship.
This is an opportunity to do what educators do best: restate something many of us know in a new way.
In class or collective worship, we can remind ourselves that, in our school, we light candles to remind us of the presence of God, and the way in which learning is like having the light of God shining in our lives. We look at light, how bright and cheering it can be and the symbol of hope it can offer. One verse a lot of our schools use in their visions is that beautiful one from Psalm 36 where the Psalmist praises God and says:
“For with you is the well of life
and in your light shall we see light.” (Psalm 36:9)
One thing you may want to do is gather the candles. This could be the one used in the hall, or ones used in classrooms – pupils may even bring one from home – but whatever ones we have, we gather them in collective worship. Then we could remind ourselves of the Presentation of Jesus,
or we could just recall that he joined a worshipping community – like ours,
or we could say a prayer of thanks and blessing for candle light and what it can symbolise,
or we could do all of the above.
In this grimmest of grey times, let’s light a candle.
Just a reminder that we have a session on Spirituality and Spiritual Development in Schools, Thursday 26th Feb 2026, 9.30am – 12.30pm (lunch provided) covering some of the basic thinking and theory around how children develop and how this guides spirituality in a Church School. To book a place email Matt.Grindrod@sheffield.anglican.org
Church of England Schools and Academies are a vital part of the work and ministry of the Diocese.
They provide education for the children and young people of South Yorkshire and a part of East Riding. There are currently 38 primary schools and 1 secondary school in the Diocese of Sheffield educating about 8,300 students.
The Diocese of Sheffield Board of Education (DBE) is committed to the development of effective collaboration with, and between, our Church Schools; to the celebration of the excellent work that has been, and will be, carried out in our Church Schools; and to the supporting and enrichment of Church Schools’ distinctive offering of teaching and learning within a Christian context.
Education team
Education
Events
Upcoming Education events that are still available to book onto will appear here. Please contact Matt Grindrod with any questions.
We have five areas of mission in relation to schools:
- Cultivation of Christian distinctiveness in the ethos and practice of our schools
- Securing of excellence for all children, with schools meeting and, in time, exceeding core expectations
- Strong leadership and capacity to improve within our service
- Networking leading to excellence through the sharing of school-to-school development across the Diocese
- Offer of service beyond the Diocese through schools affiliating and drawing upon our provision, in the wider community
Lights for Schools
Growing Faith is the vision set by the House of Bishops to achieve a culture change within the Church so that greater relationship is encouraged between schools and churches, resourcing and support households to relate to the faith of the school and explore together.
It acknowledges and respects the religious diversity within our schools and seeks to develop a spirituality that meets the following objectives:
- to inspire a culture of reflection for schools and families that ties in with the church and Diocesan year;
- to create shared conversation and engagement between school, home and church;
- to provide access to the growing of faith within families and communities attached to our schools;
- to enable churches to connect with families at the school, providing a way to invite engagement in the life of the church.
The Six Seasons
Outline of each section
The sections below all have a similar outline as follows:
- The season is named and explained.
- The Schools section provides thoughts on school based activities, with the focus being on developing a shared awareness and agenda for growing faith. Clearly, schools do other activities. For example, at Christmas time schools do a large number of activities – the purpose of this paper is not to list them but to align the Growing Faith aspirations with them.
- Families and Homes provides a simple way of developing the content of the season concerned within the families of children at the school.
- The Engaging the Church section is designed to suggest some specific activities to bring church, school and home together.
- The Diocesan section suggests ways in which the Diocesan leadership and support for schools will gear up for these times.
- Dates to note are listed, with a focus on the ones we recommend for our schools.
- The Understanding Christianity section embeds these activities in the theological concepts studies in our schools that are a good focus for this time. It is not intended that the school should gear planning to match this timescale but rather that the resource may be drawn upon for supporting ideas and materials, as well as a tying in of the season with the imagery on the Big Frieze.
The spirituality of Lights in Schools is structured around six seasons, tying in with the ‘Lights for Christ‘ year.
The period in the annual church calendar, from 1st September to early October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life.
A time of Remembrance around November and also the time when Sheffield Diocese engages in “Wear Your Faith Fortnight”
The season leading up to and marking the celebration of Christ’s birth covers all of December and takes us to the end of the school term.
January 6th is the celebration of Epiphany, the end of the twelve days of Christmas celebration. Candlemas on February 2nd marks the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
The Season of Lent marks the just-over-40 days leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The dates for these change every year.
During the weeks that follow Easter the Church celebrates ascension, and the story of Jesus departing from this earth
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