St Vigeans Church DD11 4RD

Messy Church

Normally the third Saturday (but variable) of alternate months at 10.30 a.m. followed by a light lunch.
in St Vigeans Church.

Contact is: Gerda Reid
tel. 07873 394 126
 gherkin5gnel@yahoo.co.uk

The co-ordinator is Sandra Menzies
tel. 01241 879543

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A warm welcome awaits you at Messy Church: a time to participate in Church in an exciting, friendly, informal and relaxed atmosphere. This is Church – but not as you know it!
 
We at  St. Vigeans have been participating in Messy Church since 2013 and have built up relationships and friendships with people of all ages in our communities, especially young families.
 
This is an opportunity for the grown ups to engage with our children in a fun filled exciting way, as we discover together what it means to be a Christian. We carry out our praise and activities of Messy Church in  St. Vigeans Church bi-monthly and end our Messy Church by sharing a delicious light lunch together in the church halls.
 
If you have yet to experience Messy Church, then come along to our next Messy Church and see for yourselves what you have been missing.

If you want to find out more about Messy Church then click this link: https://www.messychurch.org.uk/

 
ALL SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Messy Church takes place every 2 months in the Church building followed by a light lunch in the hall.  Activities include songs, stories, prayers, craft and games aimed at families to help them to learn about the Christian faith in a easily understandable and  fun way  and  in a relaxed environment.  

A LETTER FROM MESSY CHURCH
to Messy Church Leaders:

Drinking from the Firehose I guess how you have found the last two months will depend a lot on your home situation.  If you are furloughed on your own then you may be lonely and bored, but for many of us it's the opposite. This is especially true if you are trying to juggle working from home and educating your children. There is so much advice, so many new resources, and so many ideas you just want to hide. Someone described it as being like "drinking from a firehose". The last thing many of our our "zoom fatigued" families want to do is spend more screen time joining in with online Messy Church.  Even though as Messy Church leaders we may put in a huge amount of effort and creativity, none of our fatigued families may join in and see what we have done. Alternatively we may be watching other churches getting huge viewing figures and feeling guilty that we haven't done enough (or that what we have done isn't "professional" enough). 

 
 
.In our Messy Leaders group (contact me if you want to join our fortnightly zoom) we were talking about disappointment.  We thought about how we weren't really working from home, but dealing with a crisis while also trying to get some work done!  We are not going to be as productive as we would normally be- no one is.  Someone also shared an article about failure being the start of creativity.  That it sometimes takes no one turning up to make us stop and think about new ways of doing things.  What is it that families really need from us at this time?  Is it bags of craft supplies from the church craft cupboard?  Is it a treasure trail outside to make the daily walk more interesting?  Is it seeds for the garden, learning how to cook, or simply somewhere to chat to church friends they haven't heard form in weeks? 

We also spoke of the new opportunities to connect.  Not to feel that the church has to do everything itself, but to join in with the local volunteer bureau - or to help out on the neighbourhood meals for neighbours rota.  Even the phone call or a card can be the start of connecting to the families around us. Hospitality is a core messy church value - and that cuts both ways. Jesus ate in other peoples homes much more often then he cooked for others (though he apparently did an amazing BBQ fish). 

 
 
 
Messy Distancing Apparently, as the road gets busier new drivers can't process all the information they see and so just pay attention to what is most urgent (closest). As they get more overwhelmed they see less and less until.... disaster strikes. In contrast, as it gets busier experienced drivers shift their focus into the distance; so they have much more time to process the information and plan their response. In the Messy Church facebook chats we have deliberately taken this step back. Rather than focusing on the details we've looked at the bigger picture and thought about our core Messy Values. I wonder if we need to take the same cool look into what is ahead for our own individual Messy Churches.  

It may be that many of your frailer volunteers still need to self isolate when your Messy Church starts up, or that this break prompts them to retire from family work.  It may have been such a slog to build up your Messy Church that no one feels like starting over again. Be realistic about what you can manage - and it may be better to set the bar low and achieve it then aim for too much and do it badly. Perhaps a walk, a "bring a dish BBQ", or some games in the park might be a way to reconnect without the time and effort of a full Messy Church. If you do end up closing make it a celebration of all that you've done and learned over the last few years rather than feeling a failure. God can use whoever he wants however he wants to - and it's always a privilege to have been part of what he has been doing even if we'll never know what fruit is born by this.     

If you have the enthusiasm (and the families) then you may need to think about what Messy Worship might look like while we are "staying alert".  As the lockdown is eased there may be a restriction on numbers. Don't restrict the age range but find other ways to limit the numbers. Perhaps sort of "messy house groups" or "messy neighbours".  Try to keep the mix 25% church families to 75% families who don't have a church background. Focus on building relationships back up with each other without making things too complicated. When we meet it might be that we can't sing, or get too close to each other. So the format of messy church might initially need to change to include more games, chat or testimony. 

Part of Church being relevant will be for it to help people to make sense of the previous few months. Perhaps to do some of the things they missed out (celebrate birthdays and anniversaries), or to share some of the new skills they have learned (perhaps a post-Covid talent show). We could share what practices helped us to cope with the stress (for example a lot of people have been keeping "gratitude logs" or deliberately connecting more with nature, or making more time for prayer or meditation). It is also important to allow space for lament (which is also part of worship). Some of our families may be grieving or even been traumatised by the covid experience. The most healing response is to have people they trust listening to them and caring for them and that is something we can do as a church as well, as individually. Winston's Wish has some helpful advice on their website as does Cruse, and the Anna Freud Centre. It's also important to have some normality and routine- even traumatised children don't always want to be treated as if they are made of glass!

 

Fischy Music Assembly 
A weekly mix of the Fischy Music story and song that we all love.  Appearing every Monday on youtube. 

Tell Together Tales
One of our most fabulous Messy leaders (and professional storytellers) Renita Boyle has a new youtube channel for stories .  Have a google and enjoy! 

 
 
 

 
 
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