"Messy Church 2023

The July Messy Church will be on Sunday 2nd July at Bath Road Methodist Church, 3.00pm to 4.30pm.

We will then take a break for Summer and start again on 1st October"

"Hello Everyone!

The next Messy Church will be on Sunday 4th June at Bath Road Methodist Church, 3.00pm to 4.30pm.

We'd appreciate it if you could pass this message on to anyone you know who attends - or would like to attend Messy Church."

Happy New Year!

Messy Church will go ahead this Sunday 17th January, at King William Street School, 3.30pm to 5.30pm. We hope to see you all there for our first Messy Church of 2016. Our theme this month is 'Noah: A New Start'. We'd appreciate it if you could pass this message on to anyone you know who attends - or would like to attend Messy Church.

See you there!

"Joseph"

We met in July for our last Messy Church before the summer break. This time we focussed on the story of Joseph and how God can take things that go wrong and turn them into good.

Some of our craft activities involved making his coat of many colours using paints and collage, and we even made a 3D model! We thought about Joseph's family and how different each member of a family is! There was coin rubbing to remind us of how unkind Josephs brothers were when they threw him into a well and sold him as a slave. However, later on he was given an important job by Pharaoh and so we made a dress up Joseph doll showing the smart clothes he was given to wear.

During our worship we all participated in a version of the story using coloured streamers and sang one of our favourite songs. Then it was time for tea and as we spent time together we thought about a couple of questions: How has God helped us when things have gone bad? How does God help us to forgive others?

We decided this year to have a rest in August but are looking forward to meeting again on Sunday 20th September at King William Street School.

"Father Abraham"

June Messy Church was a bit quieter than usual, probably because it fell on a very sunny Father's day, but those of us who were there had a great time as we focussed on one of the great Old Testament Characters, Father Abraham.

We thought about God's promise to Abraham and how we all belong to this same family of believers. We made family trees, to help us think how families stretch back over time. There were several activities involving stars and constellations, and we thought how each one is different and of God's promise to Abraham that he would have more children than stars in the sky! We also thought about Abraham's journey across the desert to the new land God had promised him - making origami tents, junk model scenes and different ways of travel. People worshipped different gods in buildings called ziggurats, which we had fun making out of sandwiches, but were reminded that Abraham met the true God in the desert.

During our worship we enjoyed singing a song about Father Abraham which got a bit tricky as we tried to do all the actions! After all this activity we were ready for another splendid Messy tea and enjoyed chatting to friends old and new.

"New Life in the Spirit: Pentecost!"

We celebrated the birthday of the church at our May Messy Church, where we looked at Acts 2 and the new life the Holy Spirit gives us. Our activities focussed on wind, fire and celebration!

We had fun making kites, hot air balloons and windmills as we thought about the wind. We made flame hats and were creative with colourful paints producing some fantastic blow and splatter pictures. For our outside activities we made and then flew paper aeroplanes to see which could fly the furthest, blew bubbles and tried out our windmills and kites! To celebrate the birthday of the church we made mini birthday cakes with a candle, along with colourful streamers and shakers. Together we also made a banner with flames of fire on and 'Praise the Lord' in different languages to remind us that at Pentecost the believers all spoke in their own language and how we can all praise God in our own language too.

During our worship time we all got involved in re-telling the story in the Bible about the disciples on the first Pentecost, prayed and sang together and used our streamers and shakers to help us celebrate.

Over the yummy tea we were able to catch up with friends and think about all the things we had been doing. All too soon it was time to go home, our hands full of all the things we had made! We were also given a tub of bubbles to help us remember about Pentecost and how God breathes his Holy Spirit on each of us.

"New Life: Jesus is Alive"

It was a sunny but chilly spring day as we met together for our April Messy Church. King William Street School was once again filled with lots of excited chatter and activity as together we thought about 'New Life' and the good news of Easter Day that Jesus is Alive!

Friends new and old together got stuck in to a fantastic selection of crafts and activities carefully chosen and prepared by Janice and Liz. Several of these focussed on how caterpillars change into a dead looking chrysalis before starting their new life as a beautiful butterfly.

There were some fantastic creations using paints and tissue paper and a fun threading activity where a 'caterpillar' pipe cleaner was threaded through the holes of a leaf template! Various seeds, leaves, twigs and pasta were stuck onto paper plates to remind us of the life cycle of a butterfly.

We also thought about eggs and chicks as a symbol of new life and of the stone that was rolled from the tomb. We made marshmallow chicks which tasted as good as they looked!

Tiny black seeds were planted in decorated pots which helped us think about the new life we have in Jesus, as they grow into beautiful nasturtiums!

It was certainly a great celebration of new life which continued during our worship time when we sang and shared together. The Messy tea followed which was thoroughly enjoyed as always. All too soon it was time to say good bye, collect all the things we had made and head for home. On the way out we were given a special sticker and some bulbs to plant in our gardens.

"Mothers and Others"

The third Sunday of March fell on Mothering Sunday this year, so although it was a little quieter than usual, over 40 friends joined with us to think about and celebrate those in our families and wider community who bring us up and nurture us.

As always there were plenty of activities which kept everyone busy: there were cards, photo frames and gift bags to make, as well as cakes to decorate which helped us think about how we can show our appreciation to those who look after us by giving them a gift. We made a flower pot decoration to hang up, reminding us that just as flowers need looking after to grow, those who look after and care for us help us to grow too.

We celebrated our Messy Church family by making a banner and through hand/finger print painting and modelling playdough, we learnt that we are all unique and special, and thought about how we can support and care for each other. We also made paper plate hearts to remind us that God loves each of us throughout our lives.

As we joined together for our worship time we listened to the story of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and how she gave Jesus life, worried about him, went through sad times and happy times as she gave up her life to bring him up, just like our mums and carers do. We sang one of our favourite songs - Shine Jesus Shine - and wrote some simple prayers which we shared together. The scrummy tea followed and all too soon it was time to go home with all the things we had made. We were given a bunch of daffodils to take with us, to give to someone who cares for us to tell them that we love them!

This was the theme of our February Messy Church on Valentines weekend when once again King William Street School was filled with lots of happy chatter and activity as we met together and focussed on the story of Mary and Martha. We had a great time decorating biscuits in Martha's kitchen and also planted cress seeds which helped us think how love can grow within us. We decorated funky glasses and were reminded how glasses help us to see and how we need to see everybody and everything through the eyes of love.

The budding scientists amongst us created mini volcanos using vinegar, food colouring and bicarbonate of soda which made us think about how we sometimes feel angry and about to erupt, as Martha did in today's story. Through other activities, including making the banner above, we were also reminded of God's unconditional love for us and how we might show our love of God in all that we do and say as we care for each other.

We thought more about this in our time of worship when we heard the Bible story, shared what we had made, sang and prayed together. This was followed by our special love themed tea which we all enjoyed and thought about who we would like to invite to our dinner party and if Jesus was our dinner guest, what would we like to ask him?

"A New Start - Forgiveness"

This was the theme of the first Messy church of 2015 where we focussed on the story from Luke 5 of the Healing of the Paralysed Man. Several activities represented different parts of the story, and others made us think about the many ways Jesus heals us and how the man felt when he was given the opportunity to make a new start.

In our worship we shared what we had made, listened to the Bible story, sang songs and said our prayers. We then enjoyed the usual scrummy tea and while we chatted with each other around the table, we were given a couple of questions to think about:

  • What does God do that we think is amazing?
  • What New Year resolutions have we made?

It was a great to see so many of you there (81!) at the start of a new year on a cold January afternoon, both those of you who came for the first time and others who have been before!

We look forward to seeing you again on Sunday 15th February when the theme will be "Love Rules": Loving God and our Neighbour, which will focus on the Bible story of Mary and Martha.

Happy New Year!

Our first Messy Church of 2015 will be on Sunday 18th January when the theme will be 'A New Start'. We will be thinking about forgiveness and what this means through various crafts, activities, games and in our time of worship together. This will be followed by the usual splendid Messy Tea. We hope to see you there!

Messy 2014!

We had some great times at Messy Church during 2014 when we met each month to share together. We made lots of new friends, some who were only able to come along once or twice and others who made it every time, but it was great to see everyone!

We made lots of different things; had fun playing games; sang songs, some with actions; listened to stories; ate lots of scrummy sandwiches and cakes and learnt a lot about God and Jesus, our special friend.

During 2014 we celebrated the major Christian festivals - Easter, Pentecost, Harvest and of course Christmas. We also looked at the Lord's Prayer and Journeys and in the autumn we focussed on some of the 'I am' sayings of Jesus - the Good Shepherd, the True Vine and the Light of the World.

It was a great Messy year, although tinged with sadness in the spring, when Rev Trudie Wigley who had been involved from the start, moved on to a new position in East Swindon. We do miss her, but as a team have continued forward with this exciting, different way of being Church and look forward to great things in 2015.

Who is Jesus?
Messy Church 16 Feb 3:30-5:30pm

We are going to be asking ourselves another big question at our next Messy Church - "Who is Jesus?" - and all in 2 hours! Some of us may be able to recall a selection of the various events in Jesus' life, but often we get a bit of a fragmented view of Him and don't see the whole story.

However, we're going to take a whistle stop tour through his whole life and look at the big picture. It should be fun, so get ready, take a deep breath and come and journey with us as we race through Jesus' life! See you in February.

Lighting up the darkness
Messy Church 20 October 3:30-5:30pm

Summer is now well and truly over and isn't it noticeable how the days are drawing in darker every day? When the alarm goes off to wake me up in the morning it's pitch black outside and staying under the duvet seems a much better idea than getting up!

This month we are going to be brightening things up and thinking about light. Jesus described himself as the light of the world and we're going to be exploring what he might have meant by that, and in turn what is means for us. We've got lots of crafts and games thinking about light and darkness and we'll have a special "light tent" to enjoy lots of things that shine.

And that's not all... now that it's getting a bit cooler, we're going to start having a hot tea together - what a treat from the catering team! So do come along, bring your friends and let's explore together. And if you can, why don't you bring something that shines, like a torch, so we can explore lots of different kinds of light?

See all of you shining lights on Sunday!

Harvest Messy Church
15 September 3:30-5:30pm

The Messy team hope you've had a great summer holiday! We did, and it was lovely to see some of you at the August picnic - thanks for coming! So we're now back into the swing of things with Messy church returning to King William Street School.

We're going to be celebrating a Messy Harvest and thinking about a time when Jesus fed LOADS of people all in one go just from a little picnic one of the children offered him - it would have defeated even our wonderful Messy catering team!

Messy Harvest

We'll be giving thanks for the food that others have grow and prepared for us, so do bring along any fruit or veg to show us that you've perhaps grow (or a picture of it if you've already eaten it!), or perhaps a food that you really like and want to tell us about.

We'll be enjoying some creativity together with our arts and crafts, games in the hall and of course a yummy tea time together. We're looking forward to seeing you and catching up on all that you've been doing this summer. Tell your friends too!

Summer Messy Church picnic 18 August 3:30-5:30pm

We're not missing Messy Church just because it's the summer holidays! We are continuing to meet, but instead will be gathering for a picnic in Town Gardens on 18th August. Bring your own family picnic and come and find everyone at the gazebo which we will put up.

Come into the park via the main entrance in Westlecot Road and you'll see us on the front lawn on the left. We plan a relaxed time of chill and chat together, and will have a few garden games with us too. See you then and we look forward to catching up for a natter!

We're back at King William Street on September 15th for the usual crafts, games, activity, fun and tea and we look forward to seeing you then as we all get back into the swing of things!

Sizzling Seaside Messy Church on 21st July!

With all this sun, sun, sun, what could be a better theme than looking at Bible stories from the seaside at our next Messy Church? We'll have some water and fishing games (you WILL get wet), building challenges, shell crafts, mess with sand pictures and lots more.

If you fancy wearing your shades, your loud Hawaiian shirt or grass skirt then please do feel welcome to do so, but beware - we may take a photo and show all your friends!

We look forward to seeing you again on 21st July at 3:30pm at King William Street School. Do invite your friends too so they don't miss out on the fun.

Just turn up or if you can let us know via the website then great, but don't worry if you can't - please do just come along as there is plenty for everyone! In the meantime, keep cool and roll on Sunday's fun!

Celebrating holidays!

Our next Messy Church is on Sunday 21st July at King William Street School and we'll be thinking about the importance of spending time together and holiday time. It's raining as I write this, but hopefully we might get some more sunshine this summer and have a chance to relax and enjoy time with our friends and family. So put the date in your diary and see you then.

More details nearer the time - but until then why don't you take a look at the photos from June when we explored the Good Samaritan story and how we can all love one another? See you soon!

Next Messy Church - all you need is love!

Not long to go until the next Messy Church at King William Street School. We are going to be thinking about what it means to love each other - our family, our friends and even people we don't know! We are planning another afternoon of great activities and games and of course a lovely tea together afterwards - and we promise we'll do more jam and less cheese sandwiches this month!

You can just turn up on the day and we look forward to seeing you. But if you're intending to come, then if you can drop us a line using this simple form then it helps us out a little bit. But please don't feel you have to commit ahead of time - don't worry, we just want to see you there!

Birthday celebrations!

We had a great 2nd Messy Church in May exploring the birthday of the church and the Holy Spirit. It was an afternoon full of fun and smiles and the sun came out too! We got a bit wet and messy exploring the holy spirit in explosive experiments (they were safe!) as well as in all our crafts, games, other activities and worship time together. It was all rounded off with yummy sandwiches and cake. Thank you for coming everyone and see you next time! Do bring your friends so they don't miss out on all the fun!

What a great start!

What a great start to Messy Church Old Town! In April we held our first ever Messy Church and a whopping 86 of you turned up. It was messy, it was noisy, it was energetic, and it was fun!

In the space of two hours we explored the theme "Love your World" by planting seeds, making bugs and butterflies with funny googly eyes, in the games we played, in making underwater scenes, in making paper paint animals, in junk modelling, in designing tissue paper mosaics of our world, in our songs, in our Bible reading - in fact throughout the whole afternoon! Take a look at the photos to see what we managed to pack into our time together.

There were many happy faces and we enjoyed talking and getting to know new friends, being creative and eating together with a yummy tea. And when it was time to leave there were lots of "See you next time" and a comment from one boy who shared "this is the best church ever"!

We cannot wait for the next Messy Church which will be on Sunday 19th the same place - King William Street School between 3:30 to 5:30pm. We'll be having a birthday party celebration for the church, exploring its beginnings and who the Holy Spirit is. There will be some explosive experiments for those who like mess and things that fizz so be prepared to get a bit wet! We look forward to seeing many of you again and do bring your friends so they don't miss out on all the fun!

First meeting

Not long to go until the very first Messy Church at King William Street School. You can just turn up on the day and you will be welcome but if you are intending to come along, then drop us a line using this simple form to let us know how many of you are coming - this will help us sort out our helpers and hospitality. If you don't want to commit ahead of time - don't worry, we just want to see you there.

On that note please share Messy Church details with your friends and family. There's lots of things you can do:

We look forward to seeing you in the months to come!