Alice Ormondroyd, our Children and Families worker, writes: It’s been amazing to see the growth of young families coming to join our worship at St Saviour’s over the last year. I’ve been coordinating our Sunday provision for children since the start of April, and wanted to share three new things that have been happening:
Diddy Disciples – We’re now using the Diddy Disciples resources with Junior Church. These are a fantastic resource, written by Sharon Moughtin Mumby, an Anglican priest in Southwark Diocese, and specifically designed to engage 0-5’s in worship. Those of you who were at our May all-age worship will have got a flavour of what Diddy Disciples is like – it encourages movement, repetition and singing as a way of learning stories from the Bible. It’s helped us encourage the children’s spiritual development with creative prayer responses.
We’re building a resource cupboard in the Chapel of props to help us teach the children the stories, so if you have anything you think would be a useful addition, do let me know.
Junior Church in both services – We’ve seen more and more families joining us for worship at the 9.30am service, so we’ve decided to run Junior Church in this service too. At the moment, parents need to accompany their children, and the session is planned and run as a team by the parents attending. Do let me know if you’d like to be added to the WhatsApp group of parents involved.
The 9.30am session runs from after the opening hymn until the peace. Our 11am Junior Church is also thriving, and we’ve been growing the team of volunteers so that parents can leave their children and return to the church to listen to the sermon. The 11am session runs from the peace until after the sermon.
Children’s spiritual journeys – We’re so thankful for having so many children in church now, and we’re thinking about how we can make church welcoming, encouraging and nurturing of our children’s spiritual journeys. With this in mind, we’re looking at opportunities for the children to participate in the services before and after Junior Church. For instance, by being involved in the procession, taking round the offering plate, doing a reading, and joining the worship band.
We’re encouraging children to stay in the main service before and after Junior Church, so they can engage with the worship, or use the blue carpeted area to read books, do some colouring, or play with toys.
How can you support us?
Please pray for me, for the children and their families, and the team of volunteers.
You can get involved with leading or assisting Junior Church once a term (all resources and materials provided).
Help maintain our space and resources – we need people who enjoy tidying and organising to make sure our books, toys and resources for Junior Church are in good condition.
Invite neighbouring families to one of our services.