Messy Church

Messy Church has been happening at All Saints for a year now and I'm happy to say it is going from strength to strength!

For those not familiar with the concept, Messy Church comes under the banner of "Fresh Expressions of Church" or, put another way, a new way of doing church. The aim is that new forms of fellowship will be able to reach out to people not yet connected with a church as well as appealing to existing church members.

We meet once a month on a Sunday afternoon for 2 hours to be creative and have fun. Our session is always themed and the crafts reflect that theme. So far these have included Creation, the story of Noah, Moving on with God, the Characters of Christmas and the Easter Story. The children make various things to take home and in most sessions we also try to make a larger work of art to place in Church. Hopefully you will have seen our Advent calendar figures, as well as our earth, our rainbow and our footsteps. We see these as statements of our faith and hope that you find them meaningful as well as attractive.

After we have finished our craft session, we have a time of worship which brings together all that we have learned during the afternoon. We sing, play instruments, listen to a talk and pray. Finally we all sit down to have tea together.

We have 25 children who regularly attend, along with their parents. We all enjoy being together very much and the informal setting means that we have time and the opportunity to talk and to get to know each other.

Of course no activity like this could take place without a lot of commitment on the part of the organisers and helpers who are drawn from the adults and young people of All Saints. I am very grateful to them for all that they contribute to help make Messy Church such an enjoyable experience for all of us

Kath Oates. 01992 535805

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