Messy Church at St Phillip's!

St. Phillip’s Messy Church
Saturday March 26, 2011
The Rev Al Budzin tells how Messy Church began at St. Phillip’s.
It began with the vital church planting conference at St Paul’s Bloor St. in 2008.
In trying to find fresh and new ideas on how to ‘do’ Sunday school and uplift the main traditional service to do something better for the children Rev Al attended the Workshop on Messy Church. He was hooked!
Learning about Messy Church excited the parish leaders. They invited Jenny Andison to speak about Fresh Expressions and church.
This lit a fire and in Oct 2009 St. Phillip’s had their first Messy Church in the parish hall on the last Saturday of the month – that is when they do it.
Mieka Nicholson and Greg Nicholson are the children’s ministers who prepare and lead the sessions. What a powerful and energetic team!
Messy Church begins with children going to tables as they arrive to colour and get comfortable – many parents and grandparents attend with their children. The children then sing songs gathered together around ‘the table’.
Fr Al has as much fun as the children joining in the songs, games and activities!
Everyone gets ‘messy’ and has fun at Messy Church! Fred Sheffield, parishioner, has no children involved in Messy Church but likes to come along to support the program. It is a wonderful opportunity for young families to get to know each other as well as enjoy the Messy Church experience together.
After a story and discussion time the children and adults share in refreshments. The snacks and refreshments are donated members of the community.
The Father Al is always present to end the session with a ‘child friendly’ celebration of the Eucharist.

Our God is an awesome God!!!!