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For me, having so many children in church made it a truly joyful Eastertide. Many of them were experiencing this Church’s beautiful traditions for the first time and it was lovely seeing their reaction to the church filled with flowers and chocolate eggs, the stunning Easter Garden and the main doors being thrown wide. This Holy Week we had a number of small successes: no-one’s eye got poked out by the giant palm branches held by even the tiniest tots during the Palm Sunday parade; every single one of the hundred or so chocolate eggs was found and best of all no-one was sick in church!
Another recent success has been the Love Life Live Lent project, whereby instead of giving something up for Lent the children tried to do a simple generous act every day for 40 days, such as hugging someone feeling sad or picking up some litter. I have found it a faith-affirming experience to read about these simple acts and if you are able I would encourage you to pop into church to look at these – they are written on leaves, making up a huge tree of life by the Bellingham Chapel.
Mothering Sunday is always a special time but this year Barbara, Kath, Andrea, Ruth and Sheila made it particularly special for the children, helping them make beautiful cards, flowers and truffles for their mums, grannies and other important adults in their life. If you have a talent for craft, cookery, woodwork, sowing, storytelling, art, music, dance, sport or anything else, then please consider sharing it with us at Children’s Church (ring Holly on 723336).
If you have access to the internet you might also want to look at our new website: www.kendalchildrenschurch.co.uk or www.youngchurch.co.uk. (You can also view the new Choir recruitment video on Mark’s website www.markswinton.co.uk.)
As Children’s Church continues to grow and flourish, we are very grateful for the extension to the Children’s Corner and the beautiful altar Arthur fashioned for us. Thank you to the small team of very talented men, led by Ernie, Mike and Graham, who keep improving the facilities for the children and Choir Boys. We currently have about thirty children, but most come once or twice a month so we have a different mixture of ages and interests represented each week. Two areas we are developing are our work with babies and toddlers and with teenagers and pre-teens.
Ruth Moser and Heidi are leading the way with our new initiative ‘Young Church’ for young people aged 10-18. It will meet alongside Children’s Church and offer a safe place to explore matters of faith, with a focus on debate and questioning.
Our work with Mums and Toddlers and Baptisms continues to bring very young children into our Church family, which offers new challenges as we try to meet their needs. The soft area within the Children’s Corner offers adults a relatively safe place to play with their infant, but it would be nice to be able to also offer an informal crèche at the 10am service, so that parents or carers can have some time alone to think, pray or worship, knowing their child is in good hands. If this is something you might enjoy helping with occasionally or if you might be able to knit us something, we’d really love to hear from you (ring Holly on 723336).
One of the highlights of my Easter was the Mums and Toddlers Easter service. We are hoping to hold regular services of this kind, aimed at very young children and their families but open to all. This time we had a puppet show, with a donkey telling the story of Palm Sunday, lots of fun hymns, prayers, a short story told by the Vicar, a parade around the church waving our palm branches (singing Hosanna and banging our instruments very loudly!) and finished up with a picnic of fairy cakes and Ribena, loosely representative of the Last Supper. The Mums and Toddlers group at the Church is held on a Monday morning and is always happy to welcome new members. If you would like more details about this very friendly and inexpensive group, call the Parish Office 721248.
Our Brigade organisations are undoubtedly one of our Church’s greatest assets and one of our Brownie packs will be fundraising for Christian Aid Week (10th-16th May), as part of their Discovering Faith badge. Another note for your diary is that Children’s Church and Young Church are planning to host a Pentecost Party to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Christian church, and the start of its mission to the world - watch out for posters advertising these activities.
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