A program to create messy churches?
As a member of the Alter Guild with St. Michaels and All Saints church in Chemainus I shook my head when I first heard of the Messy Church program.
Messy churches? isn’t that what groups like Alter Guild work to prevent?
This certainly seemed odd/confusing to me.
This confusion was clarified whilst having coffee one morning with Jane Hird-Rutter who kindly wrote the article below for Island Woman.
I am sure that many of you will be equally surprised upon reading the article below.
Trish Summerhayes.
Owner/Publisher Island Woman Magazine.
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What is Messy Church?
We believe that Messy Church is a wonderful way to introduce families to a fun, learning environment that teaches them about Jesus and the Bible stories.
There are over 4000 Messy Churches around the world and they are active in over 22 different denominations.
Quoting Lucy Moore, who is the founder of Messy Church: “Messy Church is a once-monthly time when families come together to enjoy being together, making things together, eating together and celebrating God through his word, through music and through prayer. . .
With Messy Church we are trying to be a worshipping community of all ages, centred on Christ, showing Christian hospitality, giving people a chance to express their creativity, to sit down together and eat a meal and have fun within a church context” – Taken from Page 21 of “Messy Church” by Lucy Moore
We use many of the themes from Lucy’s books when we choose our monthly themes.
In March our theme was Communion and for the crafts: we made communion cups, communion cookies, communion plates, as well as playing Jesus Feeds the 5000 game
We also put together our altar (see picture) and used our altar cloth. Our Prayer station was a handprint prayer which helped to teach a variety of prayers that we can use to talk to God.
If you are interested in Messy Church, please “Come and See.” Our next two Messy Churches are on:
Saturday, May 11th
Saturday June 8th.
Our Messy Church goes from 3:30 to 6:00 and we serve a full dinner.
Please come and bring your children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews and be prepared to have fun while learning about Jesus.
Check out our Facebook page at: Messy Church St. Peter Quamichan
Mark and Jane Hird-Rutter are the regional co-ordinators of Messy Church for British Columbia. We have been Messy Church leaders for the last 10 years.
For my career, I was an Elementary School teacher and principal and for my husband’s career he was a cartographer (map-maker) and then a teacher at BCIT in Vancouver.
Since retiring we have been leading a Messy Church. First in Port Coquitlam and for the last 4 years at St. Peter Quamichan which is in Duncan
See all articles by Trish Summerhayes