Community Christmas Part 3
This month we’ve been hearing some examples of how our parishes reach out to their local communities during this Christmas season. Last week we heard how St Johns Parish in Moira organised the switching on of their Christmas tree lights.
This week we hear about Mount Merrion’s Messy Christmas.
Our monthly Messy Church is always a great occasion, but Christmas Messy is extra special as it’s a time when the local community can come together and celebrate the birth of Jesus. This year we had some extra messy crafts with polystyrene snow getting everywhere! The children where also able to make their own nativity costume; be it a camel, donkey, star, sheep, wiseman, shepherd, Mary or Joseph. These were then used to stage an impromptu nativity as everyone, including some enthusiastic adults, followed the actions and made certain noises at moments throughout the retelling of that first Christmas.
All the families were invited to follow the star, past the shepherds warming themselves by the fire, to the stable with it’s manger scene, where the wisemen were giving out gifts to the kids. (Watch the video below to follow the star to the manger!)
The afternoon finished with our catering team serving up a full Christmas dinner and pudding to over 100 people.