Messy Church for our Patron Saints

We had a good Messy Church yesterday, exploring the lives of our Patron Saints, Peter and Paul, (who are the theme of our Lent groups and reflections this Lent - more here).

Here are some photos.

St Peter was a fisherman, so we made some beautiful fish.

St Peter was originally called Simon. Jesus gave him his new name, Peter. Petros, the Greek word we translate as Peter, means Rock, so we made some rock cakes (there were no real rocks in them, though!)

And then we ate the rock cakes for tea. They were delicious.

We made wobbly boats. You can't see the wobbly mechanism in this photo, but the picture is mounted on a piece of stiff plastic tape, so it wobbles at the slightest touch, like a boat at sea. 

St Paul gathered people together into churches wherever he went. He encouraged them to love one another, even though they were very different from each other. We made chains of paper people, and decorated them so that they were all different, with different hair, skin, clothes, abilities and disabilities. Everyone is important in the family of God, and has their own gifts to give!

Jenny made a paper wheelchair for one of her paper people, which was very clever!

St Paul wrote letters to the churches he founded to encourage them and help them to grow in faith. We made cards to send to people who might need to know that we were thinking of them. 

Here's Ali with her card!

Peter and Paul are both thought of as founders of the church. Often they are pictured holding a church between them - see below.So we made junk model churches.

This church has splendid battlements.

This church is open to the elements. A cool church for a hot climate!

Ana's church is full of detail. There are even gravestones in the churchyard, and a plant in a pot.

Here are some more details about the stories of St Peter and St Paul from the handout we took away from our Messy Church.