Next gathering: Sat 28th June 10am-12noon

Please bring some friends, food or drinks along to share if you are able!

Thankyou God for your living, messy church in Wythenshawe and around the world.

Help us to make new friends together as we grow each month.

Help us to live as Jesus shows - with hope, love and peace. Amen

Stories about recent messychurch Wythenshawe:

May08:

It was lovely chaos with another new family joining in being messychurch making us around 30-35 people! 

Our topic was The Windy Day when we explored about the Holy Spirit and the story of the start of the church of Jesus.

We played parachute games outside like Cat and Mouse, made pentecost sticks with doves attached that move in the wind and mini sculptures of fruits (of the Holy Spirit!). In celebration time we told the story of a special wind arriving a long time ago in Jerusalem citywhich stirred people up & called people to follow Jesus. We passed around small flames made of coloured paper to show the spirit-wind of God who lives around and within us as followers of Jesus. We had noisy musical instrument as we sang 'happy birthday dear messychurch' to celebrate the church being born then Jerusalem and now in Wythenshawe. In the cafe afterwards we ate pizza and salad with red, orange and yellow toppings and satsumas!

April's theme was Journey with Jesus. There were passports to make and be stamped, places to travel and experience around the building including places Jesus went! A giant collage was made about different journeys we make and different kinds of transport in the time of Jesus and today that we use. Two new families came along and really enjoyed it as part of messychurch. As part of the theme a mountainside journey was imagined with loaves and fishes like Jesus and his friends and the crowds shared. So we shared lots of fish and breads in our cafe for the meal together. In the Bible at pentecost in Jerusalem city the story says that more followers of Jesus were added day by day and it's a bit like that at messychurch. This time we made new links with a family preparing for baptism with 3 children, an adult couple who live locally and a young person from Parklands High school!

For our Easter Hope theme in March we made a beautiful Wythenshawe Easter garden with green plants, green cloth, paper mache eggs and lots of other treasures we added - a red glittery boiled egg, a card with "smile" on and different kinds of crosses. We had lots of artists in residence as we designed and painted a giant HOPE sign on reclaimed wooden boards with handprints, a sun and sun rays, bright colours and patterns! It's on display for 2 weeks inside St. Marks United Reformed Church during the half term and Tree of Life Centre opening times as well as for Sunday morning worship. Our Wythenshawe Easter Garden will be around for 1 week for you to come and visit too. We ate Easter bunny biscuits, boiled eggs and freshly baked bread - all of which were especially made and donated to us by supporters of messychurch! A big Easter THANKYOU to all of those who took part this month and our two new helpers John on registration and Beryl on activities! See you all on 26th April for our next time - or this week at our new allotment on Maisemore Road for those wanting to come and help clear the ground and work hard!!

Feburary theme of Getting Ready meant 20 people of all ages, including new friends, gathered & made paper mache eggs to be decorated next month,Mothers Day cards to give away, plasticine models of a story of Jesus going into Jerusalem city on a donkey and shared a celebration about getting ready to go on a journey with home-made palm branches! We shared yummy pancakes and hot cross buns too! Some of our friends were poorly or away on holiday but we look forward to welcoming you to take part in March messychurch for Easter fun!

On Sat 26 Jan our theme was 'New Beginnings' so with 20 babies, children, teens & adults we planted a tree, decorated new sparkly name badges, made a colourful messy painted treasure chest to help with our storytelling each month & a giant nature collage with leaf prints & animal pictures showing the cycle of life, ate tidy or messy soup & bread we had just made! Phew! We had a great time! Hope you'll come along next month & try it out!

Activities Team Co-ordinator: Marion Heyes

Food Co-ordinator rotates each month & is supervised by a trained & qualified person. 

The Food Team will be preparing a simple, tasty meal for all to enjoy in the cafe

Look at our calendar below for the next few months dates for messychurch!

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• All children under 8 are to be accompanied by an adult-parent or guardian. You're responsible for your little ones at messychurch! but other adults are there to support you.

• All parents/guardians are encouraged to be present on site during messychurch! (even if you are sleeping in a side room or reading the papers provided!)

• All activities & food are provided because we believe messychurch! should be available to everybody but feel free to bring drinks, snacks or craft things to share!

• The cafe will have hot & cold drinks throughout & a simple meal will be shared as part of messychurch!

• Each month messychurch! is prepared by 2 teams: Activities & Food. Children & young people are encouraged to be part of the organising of the event as much as adults & will be supported to run activities at each gathering.

• Our trained & qualified first-aiders are: Pauline Jones & Julie Bell.