St. James Anglican Church in Smithers, BC

Messy Church

What a wonderful series of "Messy Churches" we had this school year. Our themes were based on the "I am" sayings of Jesus. Rev. Daphne often told me how much she loved these sayings so it was very special to have this as our focus as Daphne had medical tests on the day of our November event and then again in February and April as we deeply felt the loss of her passing from our presence. Daphne brought the idea of Messy Church to us and, as her daughter Alyson told me in an e-mail following our April Messy Church, "Mom would be proud that you are still going strong with Messy Church."

This year we seemed to have had a bit of a shift with those who came to Messy Church. Several members of the "older" group, who had attended since the beginning, become too old to attend as participants. Happily Emily, Gavin, Graeme and Jesse came back to be assistants instead and we were really grateful for their helping hands. A large group of children who were in the "younger" group became old enough to move into the "older" group. It is wonderful to see our children growing up! Maggie, who moved into the older group this year, assures me that when she is too old for Messy Church she will come back to help me. We are always looking forward!

After a smaller number of children attending in February (due to illnesses, family travel and just plain "we forgot to come") the number shot up again in April. There were 18 children in the older group and 8 in the younger group. Thankfully we had enough supplies for crafts on hand! The children are get-ting quite comfortable being in the Church for our celebration worship time before dinner and their par-ents are joining us more and more at this time, too. We were in contact with forty children this year. You can see their names on the" vine and branches" display in our Church Hall.

And in May, our congregation will witness the baptism of Emalee Ebare, daughter of Brandy Ebare. Emalee came to our April Messy Church. After a fortunate conversation with Brandy and Emalee during the dinner they started to attend our Sunday Service and then Brandy expressed her desire for Emalee to be baptized.

As important as it is for the Messy Church folks to connect with us, it is also important for the St. James folks to connect to them. With that in mind, I hope that anyone and everyone in our congregation will take time to come and join us for our first ever Messy Church picnic at Camp Caledonia on June 21 and to also join us for celebration worship and dinner at our Messy Church events in 2014-15.

There are too many people to individually thank in this newsletter for the help they give to make Messy Church possible, but please know that each of you and each thing that you do, no matter how big or small, plays a vital part in each Messy Church. The financial, hands on, and pray support of our St. James congregation is something to be marvelled at. One action, one prayer, one child at a time we are reaching out to share God's love in our community.

~Sharon McIntosh

May 4	10:00 am	Holy Eucharist	St. James
May 11	10:00 am	Morning Prayer	St. James
May 18	10:00 am	Morning Prayer	St. James
May 25	10:00 am	Holy Eucharist	St. James
May 25	2:00 pm	Holy Eucharist	St. John (

St. James Anglican Church in Smithers, BC

Monday, December 1, 2014

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

May Messenger

Wednesday, April 2, 2014