Portobello and Joppa Parish Church Messy Church is based in Portobello, Edinburgh and has been running since August 2009. We meet on the last Saturday of every month and the numbers attending vary throughout the year. Busier months we have forty people (volunteers and participants) and July is our quietest month when we had seventeen people (volunteers and participants).
Our July Messy Church is always a logistical challenge. More than half our volunteers are away for the summer holidays. It falls a week after I co-lead our big ecumenical holiday club week so my energy to plan and lead is exceptionally low and all the Messy Church volunteers are also recovering from holiday club volunteering. This year, our Messy Church had the added challenge of construction. Our church halls are currently under redevelopment, so we did not have access to the kitchen for dinner prep, and we needed to make the church sanctuary a flexible space for both the celebration time and the activities.
When it came to planning for this Messy Church, anything that could make it easier was the goal. Then I remembered that we were meeting the first weekend of the Commonwealth Games over in Glasgow. Our Messy Church is based in Edinburgh, so this felt like a good opportunity to tie in our Messy Church with something currently happening in Scotland. This was also an easy planning win for me, because we held a Messy Church “Going for Gold” session back in 2014, the last time Glasgow hosted the games. When the energy is low and volunteers are limited for planning and prepping, recycling previous plans is always a win!
We warmed up for our celebration time with a bit of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Then our bible passage for our celebration was 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and our focus was on teamwork – all being part of our Messy Church family and the Body of Christ. We talked about the different skills and talents of the athletes and coaches at the Commonwealth Games and reflected on the recent World Cup. One player cannot win the tournament on their own – they need a team – where everyone plays their part on the team to be successful. Teams are stronger when everyone is valued and everyone contributes using their strengths. We wondered about what part we each play in our Messy Church family. We then sang “Stronger” by Fischy Music before doing an action prayer called “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” from Claire Benton-Evans book All Sorts Prayer.
For our activity time, our crafts were all themed on the Commonwealth Games. We made ribbon sticks to dance with, decorative batons for relay races, flags to cheer on teams, edible medals to celebrate wins, and we made paper plate trophies.
Our dinner was a picnic of store-bought sandwiches and picky bits since we did not have the kitchen to cook. This became an indoor picnic when the Portobello seagulls tried to join us for the meal…
We finished our Messy Church “Going for Gold” with silly relay races – balancing rubber duckies on our hands weaving through cones and throwing bean bags into targets. Then we gathered in a circle to share the Messy Church grace before saying goodbye.
As it was July, attendance was quiet with only four families attending, however this was the perfect number given how few volunteers we had, our energy level post-holiday club, the limited space because of construction, and the little bit of catering we could offer. The beauty in the smaller attendance was also that we had more opportunity to talk with each other, catch up and encourage each other along the way. This brings us back to the main point of our message this month – we are stronger as a Messy Church when we journey together in faith – all contributing and all encouraging each other along the way in our race of faith.
Michelle Brown
Family Worker at Portobello and Joppa Parish Church
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