Boothstown

12 April 2010

Here's a fantastic email from Kathryn Carmillie in Boothstown near Manchester. Why fantastic? Because it shows a team with sustained commitment and enthusiasm and a congregation of people who are changing slowly and steadily with the gentle constancy of the Holy Spirit working through the messiness. It's a witness to the fact that huge numbers aren't important: individuals are. All power to their collective elbow.

'Dear Lucy,

It is over a year since you kindly came to speak to those interested in setting up a Messy Church in St Andrew's School...

I thought I would just give you an update on our Messy Church.

We began in January 2009, so have been running just over a year, from small beginnings we have grown to a regular group of between 12-14 families about 35 folk altogether meeting once a month during the school year. The Team have grown in confidence over the months and we are now limited by capacity of catering facilities, but with planned improvements to the school we hope to be able to cater for more people in the future.

Everyone on the Team is still as enthusiastic as on day one! We have from day one had printed and used identifiable t-shirts with the Messy Church logo on them and have created our own designed paperwork that is always the same when we write to people or advertise anything. Two of the families have had children baptised, one of the mums has recently made enquires about confirmation and we seem to keep growing. The children are all very positive about coming and have made their views known to parents and friends.

We may not be a big group - but we have contact with new people because of this new venture. The Team work very hard and are an inspiration to the ongoing work and success of the project.

You asked us to let you know how we got on and I thought it was about time I contacted you! Thank you for your input - it sparked off real enthusiasm and made people believe the project was possible.'