HUNDREDS of young people flocked to Great Malvern Priory on Saturday to enjoy a host of activities.

The family fun day at the church included the chance to try out skate ramps, archery, a bouncy castle and face-painting outside the church, with table tennis, pool, crafts and computer games inside.

All activities were offered free, and organisers say around 400 people visited throughout the day.

The day was organised by a team including members of the Priory, the Diocese of Worcester, the YMCA and Malvern Youth Link.

Organiser Ruth Pole said: “We came up with the idea while exploring how we could open the church to the local community and become a church without walls.

"It was important to us to be able to offer the activities for free and were fortunate that sponsorship from Churches Together in Malvern, Worcestershire County Council and Malvern Council, along with a contribution from the Priory, enabled us to do that.

"It’s been very positively received – there have certainly been lots of people here, and I’d like to say thank you to all those who have helped to make it happen.”

The day came at the end of a One Life week of activities at Dyson Perrins CE Academy and the Chase School.

Katie Fisher, chaplain at Dyson Perrins said: “Different people have been going into the two schools all week to encourage conversations about faith and life, including artists, a blacksmith and a Christian DJ.

"The aim was to create a bridge between church and school and it’s been great to see many of the school families come to the Priory for the fun day.”

The fun continued on Saturday evening with the One youth event for 11-16 year olds, with around 60 young people gathering in the church to play games, worship God with a live band and listen to a talk by Phil Knox from Youth for Christ.

Mr Knox said: “Young people are the church of today, not tomorrow and it’s great to see the Church of England’s beautiful buildings filled with young people – they bring life and hope and can be the good news in a world of bad news and uncertainty.”

Simon Hill, diocesan youth officer, said: “We were really pleased with how the whole day went and are keen to do events like this in the future. It was brilliant to see so many new families coming into the priory and making contact with the church.”