Things that Scare Us - Messy Church, November 2013

Our theme for Messy Church this month was “Things that scare us”, so our crafts and activities were full of spooky fun. We made bats, spiders, snakes,  glittery spider’s webs and a large night-time collage. Our big hall was in semi- darkness and there was fun to be had playing in a dark tent with torches, making silhouettes for shadow puppets, playing giant snakes and ladders with head torches and putting hands in boxes of scary yucky things!

Chris led families on a scary dark walk, lit with glow candles and with adults helping children to walk on a plank trail and go through scary tunnels . The children ended up in a huge cardboard boat, thinking they were safe, but a terrific storm blew up with actions and sound effects. Jesus, asleep in the boat, was woken up and all became calm. As the adults surrounded the boat with candlelight, we talked and prayed about how Jesus brings us peace when we are afraid. 

After all the excitement we all felt the calm presence of Jesus as we gathered in fellowship- then off for fish fingers and baked beans!

Our next Messy Church - 19th October 2013

Our next Messy Church is on Saturday 19th October at 3:30, in the St Mary's Church Hall, Hanwell.

The theme is "The Feeding of the Five Thousand", with an emphasis on Harvest and Abundance.

The Bible passages can be found in all four Gospels: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:5-15.  

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Messy Church, 21st September - The Baptism of Amy and Lucy

What an exciting return to Messy Church this month!  We were overjoyed to celebrate the baptism of Amy and Lucy.  

We were delighted to welcome the girls, their family and friends to be part of our ever-growing Messy Church family.  

Our messy activities and crafts this month were water-themed, including a Hoopla game and watery footprints.

After the activities, we came together to learn more about Baptism and what it means to us as Christians.  The card fish won during the Hoopla game were decorated and made into necklaces.  These formed the key component of our mini-workshops.  The children moved from one station to another, hearing teaching and collecting stickers for the necklace, finishing up with a beautifully decorated fish.

After this, the great moment had arrived, and we all went into the car park, to a giant paddling pool filled with rapidly cooling water.  Helen read the Baptism liturgy, one specially adapted for Messy Church, then she and Christine immersed the girls fully into the water.  

What a momentous occasion, and one that we will never forget!  We presented candles to the girls, and were invited to make the sign of the cross on our own foreheads.

Once the girls were warm and dry, we celebrated with tea, prayers, candle lighting and cake.  Amy and Lucy looked beautiful in their lovely baptism dresses.  

Messy Church, 20th July 2013

Our theme this month was the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders.  The Wise Man built his house on rock, and the Foolish Man built his house on the sand.  

We got messy with a shredded paper storm:

One team struggled to keep their flimsy tent up on the sand, while the other team kept their strong tent upright on the rocks.

All the fun activities were seaside related, with lots of sand, rock and water.  Everyone really enjoyed the sandpit in the car park:

We made coloured sand art collages, as well as "seaside in a box" sculptures.

Our home made crazy golf "engolfed" the large hall, leaving only a tiny space for Hoopla and Tin Can Alley.

We ended up with a picnic beside our car park seaside.

Messy Church - THIS WEEKEND!

Messy Church is back in its usual home, St Mary's Church Hall, Greenford Avenue, on Saturday 20th July.

Our theme this month is the Parable of the Two Builders and we are looking forward to welcoming you from 3:30.  Remember, you can't be late for Messy Church!

Messy Church at Hanwell Carnival!

It was wet, windy and, yes, MESSY when St Mary’s Messy Church went to the Hanwell Carnival in June.

The Carnival passed by the front of St Mary’s Church Hall and anyone in the procession who normally goes to Messy Church had a big surprise on arrival at Elthorne Park – the Messy Church tent was open for business!

The walls of Jericho (cardboard boxes to the uninitiated) were ready and just waiting to be painted.

There was craft work to be tackled, and then every hour the Story of Joshua was told to all those sheltering from the rain. At 5.30pm, the walls were knocked down by an enthusiastic crowd.

We shared a pitch with the Hanwell Churches Together stand, where refreshments were conveniently served. Another highlight of the afternoon was the Magician who entertained the children (and adults).

A great time was had by all, and we greatly enjoyed the opportunity to show off Messy Church to our wider community.

Messy Church is coming to Hanwell Carnival!

Messy Church @ St Marys is very excited to be relocating in June; we are going to Hanwell Carnival, in Elthorne Park Hanwell.

We will be telling the story from Joshua 6 of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and our theme is that "nothing is impossible for God".

The Carnival opens at noon, and we will be holding Messy Church between then and 5, and will be building and painting the walls of Jericho as well as lots of other activities.  

We're really looking forward to seeing you there!

Messy Church, 18th May - Pentecost

'When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.'  Acts 2:1-4

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, appearing to the disciples as a rushing wind and tongues of fire, transformed the disciples into bold preachers and healers and enabled them to begin Christ's Church. Without the Holy Spirit within them, they wouldn't have had this transformation. From this, we know that without the Holy Spirit filling us, we can't do God's work very well. We need to be constantly re-filled with God's blessing and with the Holy Spirit.

We spoke about things that are invisible but are essential in our lives. Our senses – smell, noise, breath but also air, love, electricity and power – and of course, the Holy Spirit.

We decorated candle holders and everyone got a candle to celebrate the Church’s Birthday at Pentecost. We wrote invisible messages that became clear when painted over. We had a sensory zone with wire buzzer games, sea shells to listen to the sea in, smelly stuff to test out our noses and crinkly and popping stuff to have fun with. We also made a real mess with the blow painting!

We then flew paper aeroplanes up to God. We danced in bubbles. We ran around with red and yellow streamers (symbolising fire) and made wind tunnels with fans. We let off untied balloons all at the same time (air and noise!) and then tied them and batted them about. All this sensory fun was brought together in the story of Pentecost sitting around our artwork and candles.

Messy Church, 20th April - Love Your World and Praise God for Creation

‘Then God said ‘Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ ‘God saw all that he had made and it was very good.’ Genesis 1:26 & 31

‘Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord’ Psalm 150:6

‘Praise the Lord from the earth….. great sea creatures and all ocean depths, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, young men and women, old men and children, Praise the Lord.’  Psalm 148:7-13 

The hall was alive with animals this month. We made masks, ears, antennae, wings and fins and paraded around our cube-world with instruments to celebrate everything that has breath. We also made a beautiful collage, wallowed in primordial slime and pinned fins on a shark and hats on a cat.

Messy Church, 16th March - Easter

 Easter is the climax of Jesus’ earthly mission, the reason he came to this world.  He knew what was going to happen to him and didn’t flinch from it.

John 3:16  ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…’
Luke 9:51  ‘As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem’

This Messy Church is likely to be remembered as “the drumming one”. The children worked hard to make beautiful drums and enjoyed themselves making an Easter Garden.  As Helen retold the poignant Easter story, the children, expertly directed by Jo, drummed together to set the mood of the story.  Fast, slow, loud and quiet, the children used the music to reinforce their understanding of the story of Easter.  Jesus died that we might live.  We do wrong and deserve punishment and judgement.  Jesus took our punishment and stood, and still stands, in our place.

Romans 5:8  ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’
2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’

The parents waved palms and threw streamers to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. 

Matthew 21:1-11  Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.  He was cheered by crowds who cut down palm branches and laid them on the road.  They shouted ‘Hosanna’ which originally meant ‘Save’  but has come to be a shout of praise.

The worship story ended around a beautiful Easter Garden which had been made during the activities, decorated with painted stones and paper flowers. 

Matthew 26:36-45  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus was ‘sorrowful and troubled’, but prayed to God his Father ‘may your will be done’.

John 19:41 ‘At the place where Jesus was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb cut out of the rock.’

John 20.  The tomb was empty.  Jesus’ body had gone.  Mary saw someone she thought was the gardener and only recognised Jesus when he spoke her name.  She told the disciples ‘I have seen the Lord.’ 

We welcomed a congregation of 104 this month, one of our highest.

Maundy Thursday
Matthew 26:17-30  Jesus had a last meal with his friends.  He spoke to them about his death
He took bread and said ‘…..this is my body…..’  He took wine and said ‘….this is my blood….’

Messy Church update

Our next Messy Church is on Saturday 23rd February.  The theme is Family Love, based on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We are all really looking forward to it, and are hoping to see you there from 3:30, at St Mary's Church Hall on Greenford Avenue.

Family Love - 23rd February 2013

1 John 4 :16 God is love; :19 We love because he first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars; : 21 Those who love God must also love one another 

It’s difficult to say who had more fun at this Messy Church – the children or the adults! There was certainly a lot of laughter in our hall that afternoon.

Our theme, Family Love, covered a number of aspects. Focussing on the story of the Good Samaritan during our worship time, we drew in elements of Valentine’s Day and Mothering Sunday. The story of the Good Samaritan is from Luke, Chapter 10, v25 -17, told by Jesus in response to the question "Who is my neighbour?"  A man on a journey was beaten up and left for dead.  There were several witnesses: a lawyer who treated him as a topic for discussion; a group of robbers, as an object to exploit; a priest, as a problem to avoid; an assisstant priest, as an object of curiosity; a Samaritan, a stranger, not of the same religion as him, as a person to love and care for.  We find it easy to justify not loving our neighbour, but far harder to understand that, as we are all made in God's image, we all belong to Him and in order to show His love we must act to help anyone in need.  We generally find it easy to show love to people we know, but far harder to show love to people we don't know.

St. Mary’s had just finished helping at the Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter and we wanted to acknowledge the work that had taken place helping the homeless.  We built a cardboard city out of boxes, and filled them with shredded paper, a few sleeping bags and several rats. Everyone piled in, throwing the paper everywhere, hiding in boxes, rolling around in the sleeping bags and paper.  We made an enormous mess, but everyone had a wonderful time.

John 3 :16 God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

We started making our friendship bunting, which will be sewn together and hung up in the hall every month from now on.  Available as an activity for as long as people want it, this is a symbol of our binding friendships within Messy Church.  We made friendship jewellery and heart-shaped prayers and encouraged everyone to decorate a special Messy Church keepsake box.  The decorated boxes formed part of the worship; individual boxes forming a wall spelling out “We All Love Messy Church St. Mary’s”, symbolising that as individuals, we come together at Church to make a whole.

We are blessed that so many people came to share our fun-filled Messy Church.

Ephesians 5 :1 Follow God’s example as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

Baptism - 19th January 2013

This month, at Messy Church, we explored baptism. Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist to signal the beginning of his public ministry. This was a key public declaration demonstrating that he was the Son of God. In effect, he was beginning a new journey of faith and teaching.  The word baptism is derived from the Greek word for washing; the act of pouring water three times onto a forehead or via submersion symbolise being cleansed by the Holy Spirit – ready to take on our new journeys.

Acts 16:33

At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptised without delay.

We focused on water in all our activities. We used our hands to paint with jelly, played hook-a-duck, explored an underwater world and baptised our dollies in baby baths.  We decorated a large cross in blue and silver, and made named headbands to symbolise and celebrate being named members of the Messy Church family.

Our Celebration took us on a journey through an aquatic landscape, where we met watery obstacles including a shower. We ended the worship at an altar containing water and our beautiful blue and silver cross.  As part of our journey to the altar, we had made promises in the shape of rain drops, which we hooked on the promise tree. What promises can you make for 2013?  

John 3:5

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit”.

We take strength from Jesus' baptism and draw similarities with our own lives; at the start of this new year, we are all part of a team, taking our new Church, our Messy Church, forward into 2013.  This is our new journey, with new teaching.  We are publicly declaring our own beliefs to our community here in Hanwell; not hiding in pews on a Sunday morning, but talking about God in new ways.  

Matthew 28:19

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.