Messy Church

What is Messy Church? 

Messy Church is a fun packed and entertaining family gathering where we enjoy crafting time, singing and eating together. 

It’s aimed for families with primary school aged children and, through crafting and a short story with time to rejoice through singing, we learn a little about the Bible and Jesus. 

What can you expect to happen at Messy Church?

Firstly, you can expect a warm welcome, a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate and some homemade cake for both you and your children.

Once you’ve enjoyed your refreshments there are a range of craft activities around the church that you and your children can take part in together.  Each table is run by a volunteer who will tell you how the craft relates to our theme that month.  There are usually between 7 and 10 activities to choose from and they usually include fine motor crafts like threading, gluing and painting; gross motor crafts where you can recycle larger items using your imagination, trails around the church, Lego building and play dough.

We offer a quieter area in our Lady Chapel for babies to enjoy our sensory toys or for those children who may want to take some time to relax.

After our craft time we invite everyone to come and sit at the front of the church to enjoy a bible story and some joyous singing with actions.   The children really enjoy this time of our gathering – even more so when their adults come and join in too.

When we’ve finished our time of worship we then say a blessing before sharing a hot meal.  This is for everyone to enjoy together – children, adults and volunteers – and it reminds us of the many times Jesus shared food with people.  It is a very special time to share together and a calmer time for you to get to know the people around your dining table and make new friends.

Messy Church is not a “church” service in the traditional sense and offers a very relaxed and informal way of helping your child to connect deeper with their own spirituality by asking questions about what they’ve experienced.

Who can come to Messy Church?

So long as you are accompanied by a child you are welcome to come to Messy Church!  We welcome people from all backgrounds and all faiths and we welcome both parents, carers, grandparents etc…

The only rule we have to implement is that children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Everyone who attends will be asked to complete a registration form on their first visit (this will help us to know which adults go with which children and whether there are any dietary requirements) but, on subsequent visits will be able to just sign in with our welcoming team.

Things to note:

We do take a lot of photos during our Messy Church sessions as we love to share how much fun you’ve been having with the wider community and on our notice board in church.  You will be asked if you are happy for your child to be included in these photos and, if not, we will endeavor to avoid photographing them.

If you do have an allergy or feel you need extra support during the time you’re with us; please do alert one of our team and we’ll help you with that.

When is the next Messy Church?

Messy Church is usually on the third Tuesday (subject to change - if this happens we do post on Facebook or to those in the mailing list) of each month and it runs from 3.30pm until 5.30pm at St Nicholas’ Church, Alcester.  Occasionally this may change but we will advertise every month on our Facebook page (why not like and follow it so that you can be up to date with the latest information) www://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069069234390