After several large Messy Fiestas, it was good to have a cosy intimate gathering at St Andrew’s in Paddock Wood near Tonbridge on Saturday. I thought the smaller numbers would mean that we galloped through all the material and would be left twiddling our thumbs at the end of the day - but no, interestingly, the relaxed nature of the day meant that we dwelt more on each part of the programme, not less, and that there was much more opportunity to listen to each other as a whole group, not just in segregated smaller groups. This seemed to have been valuable for the people who came and was certainly great for me, benefitting from all that wisdom, experience and grounded common sense.
One of the best things about this job is meeting great people and I was glad to remind the people gathered at a school in Ely for a day on fresh Expressions and Children that the people who work with children in our churches are among the most gracious, generous, unpretentious, caring and heart-for-God members of our churches: not in it for the fame, money or glory but purely because of a love for God and a love for children. About 70 such people had gathered for the second annual day on Fresh Expressions, organized by Dave Male.
We threw open the whole question of 'what is best for children?' and thought about the way church has traditionally separated children from the rest of the church and sent them out. (In some cases, less than graciously. The children and leaders were encouraged to depart recently in one church, with the command, 'Off you go.') In many churches the feeling is that you can't do 'proper church' when the children are present. We asked the question in Ely, is it possible to be 'proper church' if children aren't present? Because of course Fresh Expressions have the chance to start again and leave behind bad habits.
We also had two sessions on Messy Church, and it was encouraging to hear stories of churches in Cambridgeshire who are already reaching people on the fringe through Messy Churches and others who are thinking of it.
We were delighted to welcome some 50 delegates to the Bedford Messy Fiesta on Saturday, about 15 of whom had already started some form of Messy Church, with the rest thinking about it. This time Martyn accompanied me and worked valiantly all day, as did the Children’s Adviser Ruth Pyke, for which I am very grateful. Together we welcomed the guests, gave them a lively hands-on day of thought-provoking discussion and presentation, craft and food in true Messy Church tradition. It was lovely to have Deborah and Duke Vipperman from Toronto with us for the day - most of the other people were slightly more local. Some interesting questions, as there always are, about messy theology and about who could do a PhD in such a glorious subject, and about the validity of a once-a-month church 'experience'. And I think we managed to keep the paint off the strawberries.
Captain Sean Andrews of the Church Army had organized this Messy Fiesta as training for the children's leaders' team of his church but had invited the Churches Together group and friends and strangers from near and far. We were delighted to have 53 guests plus the host team from a range of distance of 'just up the road' to Liverpool, Hull and Rotherham. Two children's advisers had kindly given up the day to come, and Jane counted / discerned eight clergy. We were also pleased to have three or four children among us. The host church laid on a superb lunch of gargantuan proportions.
Following on from some very useful suggestions from the good messy people of Newcastle, we had altered the programme slightly to include a Craft Storm: each group was challenged to come up with ten ideas on different themes that can be put on the web for all to share: check out the Messy Church website over the next few weeks and these excellent creative ideas will appear!
