Rejoice, you Anglicans! The long-awaited Messy Church Holy Communion is here! The Liturgical Commission (of which Lucy is proud to be a member) of the Church of England, together with BRF, is delighted to bring you this very useful and free resource for planning a Eucharist in your Messy Church.
I cannot say how wonderful Revd Mark Earey has been in writing the clear introduction that lays out the background to the liturgy (and is surprisingly interesting, even if you’re not a liturgy student). (Yet.) He’s also been a key author, editor and adviser as we have all struggled together to present the existing liturgy in a way that helps a Messy Church leader see what is essential and what can be done in a different way. Other members of LitCom and the Messy Church network have thrown themselves into the project with glee and we’re thrilled with the result.
There is also a set of Bible themes that Revd Ally Barrett and her students at Westcott House suggested would be great as themes leading to Holy Communion, so you could do a whole series of Messy Communions with a variety of rich stories to explore the sacrament. They also kindly started to suggest activities for the themes, but there hasn’t been the opportunity to turn these into full sessions for this project. Maybe your Messy Church could turn its hand to one of them?
The pack will get even better with your input! Give it a try… send us photos… give us feedback… shoot some films… notice how God is at work in this marvellous sacrament in your Messy Church and share the stories.
And, who knows, perhaps the imaginative way the traditional liturgy has been integrated with the shape of Messy Church will be useful for other denominations too or even contexts outside Messy Church. We hope so.
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