February's Messy Church - The Parable of the Lost Son

Another wet Saturday in our wet winter but St Mary’s Church Hall was bustling with excited families. We were telling the Jesus’ story of the Lost Son and in the big hall we had three areas to help us when we acted out the story in our worship time.

The father’s house was a gazebo full of tables laden with goodies so the families could make fruit cocktails and decorated biscuits- a truly hospitable home. In the fenced off garden there were games to play with fruit and veg. In the story the son asks the father for his inheritance and goes to seek his fortune in the world.

 

The second gazebo was a party tent with balloons, special lighting, party music and loads of shredded paper for messy partying. It is here the son loses all his money in riotous living! Then he goes to look after pigs - a wonderful messy pigsty with gloopy mess to play in and paint with. The son realises his father’s servants have a better life and more food than he does, so he goes home full of sorrow, only to be greeted lovingly by his father, who orders a celebration. The one who was lost is found!

In our worship the lost one was acted out by all the children, and their parents were friends who accompanied them on the journey to discover how much the God the Father loves his children even if they make a great mess of their lives; and of course our celebration meal followed.

Next Messy Church - 15th February 2014

The next Messy Church at St Mary's will be on Saturday the 15th of February, at St Mary's Church Hall, Greenford Avenue, Hanwell.

This month's theme is "The Prodigal Son", and we look forward to seeing you there!

Messy Church, 18th January 2014

The theme for this Messy Church was “Communication”, with each other and with God, and it certainly had an interesting and different flavour!

 David, our friend who is interested in history, brought along lots of artefacts from down the ages to do with communication, which fascinated everyone. He even provided an ancient reel to reel projector which showed a black and white news summary of the year 1936. We had a cubby hole as a cinema and even had popcorn.

There were messages to God pinned on the ceiling of a darkened tent to be searched for using torches and an opportunity to write blog messages for Messy Church using an overhead projector.

Of course we did the usual craft activities too:- making signalling flags, masks with various facial expressions, flicker books, cup phones and writing with invisible ink.

Our worship was interactive and involved all ages in practising prayer by saying Thanks, Sorry and Please when we pray to God.

We had a very lively Messy Church, yet with some quiet moving moments too when we were praying for our sick friends and relatives, and when the adults lit candles in a circle whilst a group sang “This little light of mine”. Tea time is always a great time to chat and catch up.

Christmas at Messy Church - 21st December 2013

We had a marvellous Christmas celebration at Messy Church in December!

It was a nasty, wet Saturday afternoon, but the rain didn’t put off our Messy Church families. They poured in, and we celebrated with over 140 people. 

Everyone enjoyed making glittering stars, crowns for the Wise Men, angels' wings, jewelled Christmas story necklaces, paper chain prayers and a baby Jesus to lie in a decorated box on a bed of straw. There was a lamp-lit tent for making music to accompany our Nativity story as well as some fun games. We had a large bale of straw which was used as the centrepiece for the Nativity. The older lads soon found it and were given permission to play – don’t we love “Messy” Church! 

We acted out the Nativity story, travelling to Bethlehem in and out of the halls, meeting first a grumpy innkeeper then a kind one; finally we arrived at the stable with its newly heaped straw, absolutely beautifully spot-lit, where Mary and Joseph and the donkey gathered by the manger. 

Children and parents gathered in a circle, and our music makers accompanied the arrival of the angels, shepherd and Wise Men. We all prayed together holding hands in a circle to remind us of our Messy Church community with Jesus in the middle. 

Fortunately, there was just enough festive food for everyone to enjoy together!

We look forward to welcoming you to our next Messy Church on January 25th 2014.

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.