Our article this month comes to us from an Ecumenical connection, Rev. Rebecca Sparey-Taylor who ministers at Holy Trinity Trefnant Church, Denbigh Mission Area, St Asaph Diocese, Church in Wales.

Her insight into the value of a Toddler Church and how it has led to continued mission is inspiring and hopefully is something each church community can reflect on. Is it something that might be feasible in a context near you?

We thank Sr Rebecca for providing us with a hope-filled article of the power of working with families.

Prayers and Bears started in 2021. I was fairly new in post, and Wales was coming out of COVID lockdown (which lasted much longer here than in England). We were aware that the previous incumbent had run a regular kids' club after school but none of the children that attended were ever seen at church.

So, we decided that we would start a monthly 'Toddler Church' i.e. a service that parents could bring their pre-school children, get to meet us all, and then hopefully when they started in school, if children were invited to events in church, then the parents would agree to bring their children having already met us. There were no local toddler groups, so we didn't need to make sure we didn't clash with them. So, Prayers and Bears was born.

We started at 9:30am with the doors open from 9am so that if parents were dropping off older siblings at the school next door they could come in and have a coffee whilst waiting for everyone else. Initially we started telling a bible story and then doing associated crafts, with a few toys available. Within a few months the school nursery was also attending but were often a bit late. So, we swapped the format around and have kept it the same since.

Now we start with free play and crafts. Each week there is a craft or two that they can make and take home. We also do our Big Picture. This is a craft that we all work on together that is put in 'our' window in church so that everyone can see what we have been doing. Then we tell the associated bible story, say a short prayer and then often have a song. The song is our own version of 'A hedgehog is very prickly' and each time we make up new verses to fit with our theme, so when doing Daniel and the Lions Den - a lion is very hungry or Daniel is very brave. We always finish with the same verse: Jesus is very loving.

Every year we worry that as we lose our families as they head off to school then we won't need Prayers and Bears anymore. But each year new families join. Our original intention was that families would come to future events if invited. However, this past week one of our first attendees, whose family started coming to church and mum was baptised and confirmed (dad already was), a little boy now six, has just become our altar server boy. Of our current cohort who are just about to all start in nursery in January the parents have asked that we run a group for school age children. So Prayers and Create has begun. Almost all of my helpers for this are parents and grandparents of previous Prayers and Bears families.