Messy Church at St Alban’s Diocesan Bank Holiday festival

Celebrate 100 was the St Albans Diocesan festival, celebrating 100 years of service in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Luton and Barnet. At this Bank Holiday Monday event there were all sorts of activities that included bell ringing, driving lessons for young children, falconry, speakers, a dog display team, ‘it’s a knock out’, a fair ground, worship and celebration, as well as a series of marquees which included a Messy Church tent!
The two Messy Church sessions, morning and afternoon, were brilliantly organized by the wonderful Wendy Waters and her team who run a Messy Church at St Mark’s Bedford and the theme for the day was the shepherd’s search for his lost sheep. There were ten ‘sheepy’ activities, including making sheep masks, sheepfold biscuits and clay and cotton bud sheep! Martyn Payne from the BRF Messy Church team helped with the celebation alongside a puppet team from the parish of Kempston near Bedford.  
It was also a tremendous opportunity to network and talk to those interested in starting Messy Church, as well those already running Messy Churches who had stories to share. Everyone had goodie bags to take away at the end including information about Messy Church and a few freebies, as well space for all the lost sheep crafts families had made.  Oh, and the special Messy Church biscuit! So much has been learned from the many other festivals and Cathedral days where Messy Church has joined in and you can read more about how you might do something similar up on our website.