L to R: Evangeline Mcallan, Jenny Esots, Phil Boulden & Annette Boulden
Messy Church Willunga commenced in 2019 with a dedicated bunch of volunteers at the helm and Uniting Church minister Rev Cogs Smith. It has since had many people involved, including Rev Jenski and Rev Anne Hewitt and a delightful cohort of children and people of all ages attending.
Willunga Uniting Church received a Foundation Grant to fund the position of Messy Church Coordinator and were pleased to appoint Evangeline McAllan to this role. Evangeline has qualifications and skills in the field of event management and since she has been appointed we have had the following Messy Church sessions:
Sunday 26th May - Joyful noise; Sunday 23rd June - God the artist; July break for Almond Blossom Festival; Sunday 25th August - Journeying with Jesus; and Sunday 22nd September – Spring Creation Edition.
Evangeline has been focusing on increasing awareness and promotion of Messy Church amongst the Willunga community via online channels.
Playgroup SA is the leading organisation for playgroups in South Australia and Willunga Messy Church has been registered with Playgroup SA as a way to promote Messy Church.
Messy Church Willunga also has its own small library and via Raising Literacy has been able to secure a box of brand-new books. These are gradually being released into the Messy Church Community Library over the course of a year.
Messy Church works because of the support it receives from the Willunga Uniting Church community, who assist with music and singing, crafts and creativity, reading and telling stories, making good food and enjoying time together.
Recently Messy Church Willunga was honoured to receive an award at Government House for excellence in multigenerational play and practice.
Willunga Messy Church occurs at Bethany Hall, Willunga on the fourth Sunday of each month (not in school holidays).
The next Messy Church is on 27th October and includes a BBQ for Frontier Services and on 24th November, from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm.
No matter the religion or denomination in which we are raised, our spirituality still comes through the first filter of our own life experience. We must begin to be honest about this instead of pretending that any of us are formed exclusively by scriptures or our churches or religious traditions. There is no such thing as an entirely unbiased position. The best we can do is own and be honest about our own filters. God allows and invites us to trust our own experience.
No matter the religion or denomination in which we are raised, our spirituality still comes through the first filter of our own life experience. We must begin to be honest about this instead of pretending that any of us are formed exclusively by scriptures or our churches or religious traditions. There is no such thing as an entirely unbiased position. The best we can do is own and be honest about our own filters. God allows and invites us to trust our own experience.
It’s unfortunate that we lost the bread and fish ritual meal, because the bread and wine ritual meal didn’t emphasize this idea of surplus: real food that actually fed the poor.
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