First Forest Church for St Mary’s families
On Sunday 18 July a group of children and parents from St Mary’s gathered for their first in-person Forest Church. The initiative was started up during lockdown by one of the church members, Charlotte Smith, who put together trails and activities which families could do socially distanced or in family bubbles out in the fresh air.
Sunday was the group’s first opportunity to meet together in the woods at Kingsway Farmhouse, Kings Worthy. The theme was ‘naming’ and the children had a lovely time getting to know the chickens and choosing their favourite name, before following a trail through the woodland to find different varieties of leaf which they then matched with their right names. This was followed by a short time of reflection and prayer when we talked about the love of God who names everything in creation and who ‘calls us by name’ to be in his family.
Well done to the children for getting stuck in and to Charlotte for her imagination and vision. We hope there will be many more Forest Church meet-ups in the months to come!
