Party on!

Our festive Messy Church may be over but the celebrations continue  at St Nicolas Church.
Coming up in the next few days...

Sunday 18 December

10.30am - Family Service and Children's Nativity Play

6pm - A Festival of Lessons and Carols

Christmas Eve (Saturday 24 December)

4pm - Christmas Tree and Crib Service

11.30pm - Midnight Holy Communion

Christmas Day

10.30am - Family Service to celebrate Jesus' birthday!

Those listed in bold are particularly suited to families with young children and will be lively, interactive and short!

 

Messy Christmas Special

Come along on Sunday 11 December for our Messy Christmas Special! Christmas crafts, nativity story, a fun new song to learn and festive treats for tea!

Try to be there for 4pm because we will be having a slightly shortened craft time and if you can stay for a little longer than usual after tea there will be some party games for children (and mulled wine or fruit punch for grown-ups!)
Dont forget your nativity costume - tea-towels at the ready!

Messy 3

These are just a few examples of the wonderful creativity that took place at Messy Church 3 on Sunday 27 November. Our theme was 'Love your world' and pavement art was one of the activities. However November is a chilly month and so our artistic endeavours took place inside and our 'pavement' was the church floor; how useful that the church has a stone floor with slabs just the right size for chalk drawings.

We also found a use for odd socks. Who knew, that with just a little time, effort, glue and tissue paper, they could transform into colourful dragonflies? Sadly they flew away before ay pictures could be taken but I am certain that David Attenborough would have been fascinated by this new species. 

We made some creepy crawlies with pipe-cleaners and some colourful 'fruits' with marzipan and icing. Some snowmen were spotted amongst the creations - a slight variation on the theme but very seasonal.

Leaf-vein printing was the messiest activity for the day - lots of paint and some beautiful results. We also finished our banner that we have been making since the start of Messy Church in September. It is now on display in the church building so do come and admire it at the next Messy Church (11 Dec) or at one of the special Christmas highlights over the next few weeks.

One of the take-home ideas was to choose a clear night and go outside and look up at the stars. Take a torch with you and see if you can read Psalm 8 together with your family. Have you tried it yet? What about talking with your family about one thing you could do this month to help save the world? Why not add you ideas here in the form of a comment.

See you for the Christmas Special and don't forget your costume!

Everybody needs good neighbours!

October's Messy Church seems like a very long time ago now but we had a lot of fun - a great way to start helf term week. The theme was 'Love your neighbour' and we heard a story about two enemies who learnt how to be friends. In our craft activities we made some bandit masks and took park in bandit target practice with some water pistols. We made friendship chains and first-aid boxes and added to our large Messy Church banner.
In our story and song time some of us acted out the story and we all had the opportunity to play some percussion instruments.
Dinner was fluffy jacket potatoes with sausages, cheese and beans...mmm!
Here are some of the take-home ideas linked with the theme:

1) Help someone who is not a friend.

2) Smile at someone you don’t like.

3) Discover more about the story of the Good Samaritan. If you have a Bible read the story for yourself in Luke’s gospel, chapter 10, verses 25 to 37.

4) Collect all the loose change in the house and give it to the Samaritans http://www.samaritans.org/ or Samaritan’s Purse http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

5) Find out if you have any relations in other parts of the world and discover more about where they live.

Why not have a go at being a good neighbour this week?!

October's Messy Church... this weekend!

Sunday 23 October sees the next Messy Church event at St Nicolas. There will be plenty of messy fun and craft activities plus a water challenge, storytime and a yummy family meal.
Hope to see you there at 4pm.

Here's what we did in September...

September's Messy Church lived up to its name!

There was plenty of messy fun with craft activities based around the story of a young son who left home with his father's wealth and wasted the lot. With nothing left to live on the lad had to get some messy work feeding pigs.. and even the pigs' food began to look good to him. In the end he came to his senses and returned home anticipating a frosty reception from his dad. Instead, the father met his son with open arms and threw a party - what a home-coming! The son had been 'lost' but in the end made his way back to the place where he belonged and the love of his dad.

What do you make of that? Jesus first told that story (you can find it in the Bible in Luke's gospel, chapter 15, verses 11 to 32) - why do you think he might have told it?

At Messy Church we pondered the story as some people delved up to their elbows in jelly (otherwise known as 'pigswill') to find some hidden surprises and others made their own pigs (in pens) with biscuits, icing and other edible goodies. Some very creative junk models of farm machinery and animals were made and in a slightly less messy corner we decorated some hearts and did coin rubbing. We also started making our own banner that we'll continue to work on in October and November.

Of course there was singing with percussion instruments followed by story-time and then the food; we had a great barbecue - sausages, burgers, salad, coleslaw and some cupcakes for after.

How can we top that? Well we hope you'll come along on Sunday 23 October to find out! There will be more messy craft, a water game, another fun story with some songs to play along with and a yummy family meal for us to enjoy together.

See you soon!

Today!

St Nicolas Messy Church is starting today at 4pm... and it is raining. However we will be fearless and uphold the great British tradition of barbecuing in the rain, under umbrellas!
Join us for a very messy afternoon!

Easy, Peasy Bunting!

Well, as many of you well know, the first St Nicolas Messy Church will be on 25th September. Write it down in your diaries mums and dads! They'll be lost of fun and family togetherness going on  - crafts, delicious barbeque (weather permitting) and great family worship, with stories and songs for young and old alike. We're really looking forward to seeing you all there and we have been preparing the bunting for the big day. Hey, what's a celebration without a bit of bunting?

I thought I'd take a few photos of us making it, as I think it's something fun people can do with their kids on the tail end of the summer holidays, when the weather is dreary and the kids are fed up of watching non stop Sponge Bob! Here's how it's done.

1. Carve a simple shape into a large potato. We've used a heart as it fits in nicely with the theme of our first Messy Church - the love of God the Father.
2.  Cut out as many triangle peices as you can without getting goggled-eyed with boredom. You can use paper or plain fabric for this. Your triangle should be roughly 17cm across the bas and 19cm down to the tip. I made a template on "Word" for ours and printed it off for the kids to draw around.
3. Use your potato and some poster paint to print the hearts onto the triangle shapes. It's best to do a test on a bit of scrap before you get going - but your final print doesn't have to be perfect.
4.  When your triangles are dry, stick or staple them onto some colourful ribbon, or even wool. Make sure that your triangles are evenly spaced.

If you are making your bunting out of fabric, you will be able to use it time and time again. I think bunting is a lovely addition to any family celebration. Here are a few tips to help you.

1. Cut out the triangles with pinking sheers, so you don't have to hem your fabric.
2. Use fabric paint, rather than poster paint, so you can wash your bunting if necessary.
3. Sew the bunting onto your ribbon, or bias binding - this will make it strong.

Finally, this is such an incredibly quick and easy thing to do and the bunting grows in no time. It cost us next to nothing and it was a lovely bit of fun on a wet, Wednesday afternoon!

Why not come and see the finished product at Messy Church this September? Why not have a bit of messy fun yourselves?...Oh come on, you know you want to!

Countdown to Messy 1

With just a month to go until our very first Messy Church at St Nicolas preparations are getting under way. We'll be ready to welcome you with a cuppa or glass of squash at 4pm on Sunday 25th September. We have chosen some very messy craft activities for the day - things that will make you say 'oooohh' and 'yeuk'! There will be a short story-time and the chance to learn a song, perhaps with some actions and percussion instruments. Of course there will also be some delicious food and dads will be pleased to know that a barbecue is likely to feature!


Plan to join us for the start of this exciting new event.

Wet and a little bit messy

Sunday 12 June was messy in all sorts of ways, not least the weather which ensured that those taking part in Nuneaton carnival were wet and chilly by mid afternoon. Nevertheless we had a mini Messy Church taster with some Pentecost themed crafts including kites and windmills and we raced paper boats across a paddling pool, blowing them from one side to the other. There was also some messy food - beautiful cup-cakes decorated as mini birthday cakes to remind us that Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.

Now we are looking forward to our Messy Church launch on Sunday 25th September, 4-6pm when there will be plenty more craft activites for all the family, a special story and song time and then a delicious meal... perhaps even a barbecue if the weather is sunnier by then!

Tasty?!

On Sunday 12th June there will be a Messy Church taster at St Nicolas, taking place around the carnival events. Come and join us for family craft activities, a short story and some refreshments.... and find out about our messy plans for September!


Kelly

Hello!

Welcome to our little home on the world wide web. We hope that this place can be a bit of fun and inspiration for those who visit. This is just a tester post, but please keep coming back for all of your Messy Church, St Nicolas, info.


Have a lovely, messy, day!


Natalie