Children and Young People

Junior Church
Children and young people share in the first part of Sunday worship, which starts at 11 a.m. They then move into Junior Church where they take part in a range of activities including storytelling, art and craft, games and Bible study. There are always two leaders working with the children. On the first Sunday of the month the young people rejoin the adults to share Holy Communion and on the third Sunday everyone stays in church for All-age Worship.
Keep up-to-date with what's happening in Junior Church through our blog http://mm-junior-church.posterous.com/.

Creche
A creche is provided at the same time as Junior Church and is also available at All-age Worship. It is organised by members of the congregation on a rota basis.  

First Steps
This is the Church's way of saying welcome to children who are baptised. On the day of their baptism they are given a candle and a card called "First Steps" as a reminder of this very happy occasion. They are then visited with cards each birthday and Christmas up to the age of five. This is an outreach to families to show we care. 

Youth Fellowship
The Circuit Youth Fellowship is for those aged 11 and over, it meets on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month at 7:00 p.m. at Hurst Methodist Church. This is an opportunity to explore faith in a variety of different ways and socialise with other young Christians.

Pyramid Rock Holiday Club 
Organized jointly by members of the Methodist Churches in Mossley and Hurst.

Fifty children attended the 'Pyramid Rock' holiday club at Mossley Methodist Church from 15th to 19th August 2011.

All of the children were given a bright yellow T-shirt with the 'Pyramid Rock' logo and lots of opportunities to have fun through games, craft, drama & music as well as plenty of activities with an Egyptian theme.

The children were put into teams, which they themselves named: 'The Crazy Camels'; 'Ketchup's Kids'; 'The Mad Mummies'; 'Cleopatra's Pyramids' and 'The Dream Team'.

'Please Mr Crocodile can we cross the river?' was a particularly popular game. The craft activities included decorating gingerbread figures of Joseph so that they were each wearing a multi-coloured coat.

Throughout the week those present explored the Biblical story of Joseph. Joseph was given a multicoloured coat by his father, this made his brother's jealous so they sold him into slavery. Following this he had quite an adventure in Egypt eventually becoming the Prime Minister. In this role he saved his brothers lives during a time of famine and was reconciled with his family.

A news report about the life of Joseph was read each day by a 'superhero' puppet called Captain Ketchup. He introduced the children to different characters from the story.

Each morning there was an episode of the drama entitled 'The adventures of Doctor Potty' - he was a mad archaeologist who, along with his niece, Denise, was trying to solve the riddle of 'the relic with the missing onion shaped piece'.

The children's favourite songs included 'God's people aren't superbrave, superheroes'; 'A naggy mum, a grumpy dad'; 'May you find peace' and the Pyramid Rock theme song, 'We're gonna swim up the Nile'.

On the Tuesday we invited all of the children's' families to stay at the church for lunch - the catering team excelled themselves serving up hot dogs and dessert for 100 people.

This club was supported by a Council Holiday Activity Grant through T3SC.



Junior Mission for All 
JMA is well over 150 years old and a great way to help others around the world! Indeed, in 1841, JMA became an integral part of the Methodist Church throughout Britain. Despite its long history, the aims of JMA have remained the same and are incorporated in the JMA promise;   'I promise to learn, pray and serve with the worldwide church of Jesus Christ'. A collector's magazine, badges and certificates are provided to encourage children to collect or raise money and to be part of the mission of the world wide church. Children collect money for missionary work in one of two ways; either using a collection box at home and at church or identifying church members or family/friends who wish to give regularly.

JMA income has been divided the same way since 1932 - £1 out of every £5 is used for 'Mission in Britain' and the remaining £4 for work in other parts of the World Church.

There also is some great child friendly information at Methodist Children web site.