Creative Church is a special time of activities and worship for children and their parents/carers, and is held on the first Sunday of each month, at 10.30am in Footprints @ The Beacon, 37 London Road, Dover CT17 0SS. We always have a great time!
Our thanks to all the leaders, children and families who took part in our Nativity Play as part of the morning service in the church on Sunday 15 December.
We were thinking about the things that Christmas would not be complete without - decorations, gifts, Christmas pudding, and sprouts! But most of all, of course, Christmas would not be complete without Jesus. Our thanks to the angels for their poem, Mary for her dancing, the shepherds for their singing, all the other actors for their readings and performances, and, of course the donkey for its Ee-aw!
The next Creative Church session is on Sunday 5 January at 10.30am. All children, families and carers are welcome.
In November we thought about Remembrance and what it means to us. We looked at the Gentle Tree which stood in a forest that was being destroyed by machines, how it stood up to them and made a stand for peace.
We turned it into a tree of thankfulness as we recalled all the things that we are grateful for, which we wrote on "leaves" and added to the tree (pictured left).
Do come and join us at our monthly sessions and explore what the Christian faith has to say to children and young people as they try to make sense of this troubled world.
We held our Harvest Festival in October, joining with "big church" to begin with and handing over our harvest gifts and then going into our own session. We thought about everything God gives us and then we made a harvest garland.
Creative Church members performed their Nativity Play, A Risky Christmas, at our service in our church a week before Christmas and it was well received by the congregation.
In February we acted out the story of how friends of a person who was ill were so determined they would get him to Jesus that they made a hole in the roof of the house where he was and lowered him down to Jesus.
To start with we carried our friend around the building, looking for Jesus, from Footprints (where we met) to the main church where the congregation were joined in worship. There the Rev Harvey Richardson helped us in our search for Jesus and told us why it was so important we looked for him. Then we returned to Footprints for the rest of our session.
Creative Church members performed their Nativity Play, A Risky Christmas, at our service in our church a week before Christmas and it was well received by the congregation.
Our September session started in "big church" (as we call it), celebrating our church's anniversary, and enjoying a birthday cake, candles and by singing Happy Birthday to The Beacon. Then we went into our own session and ended up drawing around each other's feet!
It was Thank You Day at the July session of Creative Church.
The previous day, at Dover Regatta, people had been invited to write their thank yous for all those people and things they were grateful for. All those are now on display in the windows of Footprints.
Children, teenagers and adults all got involved, thanking teachers, family, those no longer with us, nurses, doctors, armed forces and emergency services to name just a few.
We then used the same theme for Creative Church on the Sunday.
For our Pentecost service in May we had Creative Church for All!
Our Theme was Superheroes and the Power of the Holy Spirit.
This was a wonderful opportunity for everyone of all ages to meet and worship together.
Creative Church 4 All gave church members, particuarly from Creative Church, the chance to dress up as superheroes, including Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Dr Who and Super Gran.
Our service was very different - more in line with what the youngsters and their parents enjoy every month in Creative Church - but it still had a powerful message about the Superpower that we receive from the Holy Spirit.
We explored the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
DJ Harlequin made an appearance with his rap, 'I'll always be your superpower'!
Our thanks to the Creative Church team: Deacon Michelle and Dave, Clare, Glenys, Val and Alice.
We had a lovely time at Creative Church in March as we thought about Spring
and all the signs of new life around us.
We explored what we need to grow into the people God sees we can be including kind, loving and generous.
We had our silly song with Dave and we also made some lovely daffodils!
In December we explored the message of Good News within the Christmas story.
Mr David Legumi, who was news reader for the day, shared some inspirational good news stories from around the world including Amarildo Silva Filho from Brazil (pictured left).
He saw piles of discarded tyres in his neighbourhood and turned the tyres into beds for 6,000 stray cats and dogs!
The children loved these stories and it inspired them to tell their own.
We then talked about the angels who appeared in the first Christmas story and their message of good news. Together we discussed what is good about the Christmas story and how is it good news for us and everyone today.
There were lots of answers including from a 7 year old who said, "Jesus came into the world to show us love and hope".
For our craft time we made some wonderful Christmas angels.
We had a great time sharing and fun!
Our children used ingeneous ways of marking Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Sunday using items they can find at home. Some created an Easter garden, another used Lego to depict the crucixion, and Elouise and Mason used crumpets, bread and pasta for their Easter Sunday morning scene. Absolutely brilliant! Well done.
Trust was the theme of our March session.
On Sunday 15 December 2019 we performed our Nativity Play "Stable Memories" as part of the service in the church, and it was very well received.
The November session, on Remembrance Sunday, gave us a chance to remember those who have helped us be free in this country, and we made poppy field pictures. We prayed for people still caught up in war today
We also collected and blessed the Love in a Box boxes which the children had filled with gifts for children in need this Christmas
And we acted out, with puppets, a story ’The Gentle Tree’ - about a tree which stood strong (even though trembling and scared) when all around was crashing to the ground. It saved the forest and all the animals' habitats. The children, with the puppets, then placed poppies around The Gentle Tree. It was beautiful.