St Mary Redcliffe Parish Magazine - November 2019

Children’s church
ON TODDLER CHURCH
AND MANY THINGS UNDER ONE UMBRELLA
— BECKY MACRON
FAMILIES & YOUTH MINISTER
AS MOST OF YOU MAY KNOW, I spent most of my career as a
teacher of French and Spanish, and I worked in a secondary
school — which reminds me of Redcliffe in many ways. One
of the most rewarding roles during my time in teaching was working
in the pastoral team, and I find it a great privilege to be a part of the
pastoral team at Redcliffe Church.
In school I was part of the Year 7 team and one of the things I introduced
was a group, which met on a lunch-time, that I called the “Umbrella Club”.
It was not a particularly ‘cool’ name — but then, again, I have never been
particularly “cool”, and that has never been my aim in life! The club
described exactly what it was: many things under one umbrella. One of
my pet hates in life has always been labelling people — putting them into
boxes. If we all fitted lovely neat labels, that would work well. But I don’t
think any of us really do that.
Todder Church...
On 11th October, Aggy, our Curate, led the final session of Toddler Church
on our topic of Creation. Toddler Church is a new initiative, something
that has been created ‘from scratch’ — not made — and so it seemed
appropriate that our first bible readings should be taken “from the
beginning”. During this time, we have been thinking about God’s beautiful
world created for us, and for all the things for which we are truly thankful.
This fitted in nicely with the theme of “Creationtide” that ran throughout
September. Through sermons, prayers and reflections, the need to
protect what is ours has become a topic of discussion. Amongst many
changes, this caused us to reflect during the Harvest Festival Lunch on
our own use of disposable single-use plastic. Small changes collectively
make a huge difference and, to quote some wise words I heard during the
week, “we’re never going to change the world unless we are prepared to
change ourselves”.
Running a Toddler Church has been part of my plan of action for a
long time, and facilitating the sessions has truly surpassed my highest
expectations. Unlike my “umbrella group” during my teaching years,
the name “Toddler Church” does not really describe exactly what it is.
For a start, we haven’t had many toddlers! We have, however, had
some babies and during the holidays we had some primary school
children — and, what has been lovely is that I am never short of a team
of enthusiastic, kind and devoted helpers. It has also given me a taste of
a different aspect of the life of Redcliffe. Daily church life.
Last week we started our new topic, Toddlers Knowing God. I always
write my own programmes and have begun to do this for Children’s
Church — it is deeply embedded in my teaching practice that a lesson
has to be purposeful and meaningful; textbooks, although useful, are
not tailor-made to the individual. One size does not fit all. I do, however,
rely greatly on the free online resources on the Internet, and I came
across this theme on a children’s ministry website. The aim of Toddlers
Knowing God is to bring Toddlers (babies, parents, leaders, helpers!)
closer to God. This is a particular interest of mine, not least as I explore
my own vocation. Last week we read about God, the Good Shepherd, so
it goes without saying that this involved a lot of cotton wool and fluffy
sheep — this is Children’s Ministry, after all!
p11 & p13: at Toddler Church
p12: sheep collages
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