Saint Andrew's Church in Great Cornard recieved £200 Growing in God growth funding to help fund the craft materials for their ever growing Messy Church program, as well as provide age appropriate Christmas gifts for the children.
At the beginning of December an email was sent out to all Messy Church families plus church members asking anyone who would like to make Messy Christmas crafts to register their interest. This was also posted on Facebook.
Craft packs were put together which included approximately five crafts plus everything needed to make their own Christingles. The packs were hand-delivered to 26 children from 11 families.
Inside the packs was an invitation to join a group Zoom service on Sunday 20 December to sing carols, watch a special Christmas animation "Christmas in Lockdown", show with each other the crafts that were made and build Christingles together.
Following this, five families dropped into church and left some of the decorations they had made. They were used to help dazzle up the church just in time for Christmas!
On Christmas Eve, the church held multiple, smaller scale services that required pre-booking to fall in line with COVID-19 guidelines.
The event had a positive impact for the church's growth as a surge of new people got in touch with the church via Facebook and friends of members requested the craft packs. New people also came to the services on Christmas Eve and were surprised and delighted to receive the gifts.
A similar event is currently being planned for Easter, with the craft packs due to be sent out before Mothering Sunday so that children can celebrate and make something for their Mums!
