Messy Church In Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh (KEA)

On Saturday 16th April - It was great privilege to have been invited to participate in the Diocesan Training Day - presenting Messy Church to people across the three diocese of KEA

Below you'll find the presentation given and links to all sorts of resources which hopefully will help parishes thinking about Messy Church.

Messy Church in The Midlands of Ireland!

Greetings to all in Sunny Ireland! (we can always hope!)

Messy Church is taking root across Ireland ... across the denominations which is great.

In order to help encourage local churches to think about Messy Church we're going to run an interactive information day which we're calling a Messy Church Fiesta ... simply fill out the form below and we'll send you more information

When - Saturday 17th October 2015

Where - Mountmellick Methodist Manse (Venue may change dependant upon numbers)

Booking - www.messyireland.blogspot.com

COST - Donations welcome to cover costs of Fuel & Training materials.

Aim - To give an overview about what Messy Church is and to dream about
how Messy Church could work in your congregation / Parish

A messy Advent in Ireland! ... great beginnings

Below is a message from a Church Leader in A Church somewhere in Ireland which I received just before Christmas! ... It's great to get some encouragements along the way :-) and also some new ideas :-) 

If you have any encouragements which we can share please let us know ... messy@irishchurch.org is our email address 

Hi Robert

Good of you to be in touch in spite of being so seasonally busy during Advent time!

You'll not know me, but I had attended the Dublin Sunday School Conference and picked up a lot of material so as to be able to run Messy Church in A Church (AC)* in 2015 . I'm the minister of AC and in the throws of spreading the seeds in order to get a team of people going and growing who aren't the typical 'involved in everything' folk, but at the same time people full of potential, by the looks of it so far un-used potential. So I hope and pray we'll be well on the way by the time I write to you again...

As a small beginning I managed to get started with a MESSY NATIVITY...

So on Christmas Day the Travelling Nativity Set will be coming home to the Church. Didn't have much time to get knitted sheep, but by giving it a head start by knitting sheep myself I had consequently enough time to get "my ELFS" to help me knitting and in fact we were able to get 24 sheep ready along the way - then some time in 2015 I will be inviting all the families who kept one of the knitted sheep to an all-age-messy service about the Good Shepherd, and we'll be able to see how different the knitted sheep are, just as different as we are...

The Travelling Nativity Set was very well received and caused quite a bit of excitement and anticipation. Should ordinary adults be left out? NO! So for the adult members of AC I designed an ADULT ADVENT CALENDAR to run parallel to the Travelling Nativity but to reach out to a  different section of thechurch. For that purpose I adapted the prayers and Blessings accordingly and used an ADVENT CALENDAR sown on green cloth material (a bit like patchwork), which has little pockets, each of those has a pinhead through the opening to hold the contents in the wee pouches. What's in it?

Well, Chocolate coins from LIDLs (you get the most chocolate compared to £-shops et al) and a pewter coin which folk can keep (all this is wrapped up in wrapping paper as a wee parcel); each of the pewter coins (size of 2E or 2£ coin) has a prayer or biblical quote printed on them. I found a variety of 5 or six different pewter coinesigns, so not everyone gets the same and the word may - by God's grace - speak in a very personal way to the person opening the Advent Calendar 'door' for the day. Some members haven't actually opened the wee parcel in their Advent Calendar 'door' but decided to keep it and only open it on Christmas day. Amazing how different people are and what they come up with...

So this is the latest from AC

May God be with you till we meet again!

A merry messy Christmas to you, your loved ones and your church!!!

AC Leader

Timely Christmas advice for churches

This appeared in our inbox today ... and I just thought it might be good to share it with the Messy Church community ... some ideas for your church family to help out with.

A SIMPLE FAMILY CHRISTMAS

How many shopping days are there left before Christmas?  The very thought of Christmas tends to bring about a variety of responses – those who are excited about time with families, celebrating the greatest event in History with the birth of Jesus.  Others who are simply dreading the pressure from children to buy toys and gadgets that they can’t afford, expensive food and drink that will be stockpiled and then far too much ending up wasted and thrown in the bin.

In the UK and Ireland Christmas is recognised as one of periods of greatest stress in the year, which precipitates more marriage and relationship breakdown than any other season.  Marriages already under pressure are put into a pressure cooker of expectation, financial pressure, mixed together with perhaps a difficult relative coming to stay, and the fear of January’s bills.  It’s not much to look forward to in many households.  How can we in the church help?

Simplify

In the current economic climate, with more and more families under financial pressure, perhaps one thing we can do is to take a lead.  Tell your neighbours and work colleagues that you are going to do a simple family Christmas.  Set a budget, and cut back on what you spend at Christmas.  Plan the menus so that you aren’t buying food that will be thrown away.  Invite others to share your festivities and share the costs between you.  Make a pact with friends and family not to swap gifts, or do a “Secret Santa” with an agreed limit on the cost of gifts.

Budget

One organisation in Northern Ireland that is always ready to help out is Christians Against Poverty, and there are similar groups in the Republic.  CAP offers money courses that simply teach people how to budget, getting the principles right so that we don’t spend more than we have coming in, and get on top of our finances rather than letting the pressures get on top of us.  Find out more at www.capuk.org

Hampers

Some congregations provide Christmas hampers to families living locally who can’t afford Christmas treats, and this is a really practical way of loving our neighbours.  You might like to encourage people that when ‘treats’ are on offer, or buy-one-get-one free, the free one could be given away to a Christmas hamper.  Ideas to include in hampers would include biscuits, schloer, pringles, chocolates, jams, Christmas cake, mince pies, crisps and nuts – as well as items for a couple of meals including tinned ham, tins of chicken in sauce.

Gifts

What about a toy service, or Christmas tree service, when people bring a new gift to church.  Gifts could be distributed by the Rector to families with children where appropriate, or passed to organisations such as the Church of Ireland Board for Social Responsibility NI who make gifts available to organisations working with children who won’t get other Christmas gifts.

Invitations to free events

What about holding some special family events in the days before and after Christmas – providing families with special Christmas things to do together which cost them nothing?  Christingle services, Family parties, “bring and share meals”, or a Church outing with families going for a Boxing Day walk together –all these are great ways of welcoming families, providing a special event, and perhaps helping to ease some of the strain and stress of life.

Article written by Mrs Hilary and Canon David McClay for the Church of Ireland Marriage Council

Lucy Moore coming to Dublin in November

Building Blocks Conference Dates:

Belfast Conference: Saturday, 15 November 2014 – 9:30am to 3:30pm

Venue: Assembly Buildings Conference Centre, 2-10 Fisherwick Place,Belfast, BT1 6DW

Dublin Conference: Saturday 22nd November 2014 – 9.30am to 4.00pm

Venue: All Hallows College, Drumcondra

Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church, is the keynote speaker at this years Building Blocks Conference. Lucy is a gifted communicator who will share her vast experience of all things Messy! For more details about the conference click on the link below.

What is Building Blocks?
Building Blocks Booking Forms

Messy Church Ireland ... Seminar at New Wine Sligo

As promised to those at the New Wine Ireland Conference ... we've uploaded a handout with all the slides from our presentation.

 Please do sign up for Messy Mail at the top Right Hand corner!

Download the PDF file 

Messy Church of Ireland - Gazette Article