The Crèche runs every Sunday during the school term times and caters for small babies up to children aged around 3 ½. On a typical Sunday there are 19 children in crèche, with three crèche volunteers running the session, drawn from a pool of around 15 to 18 parents who regularly assist. Parents tend to stay in crèche with the children because of their young age and the fact that many of them will never have been left in a playgroup or nursery setting before (although some children are unaccompanied and their parents join the main service). Three of the parent volunteers (currently Helen Evans, Sanaz A.Rad and Marc Murray) take overall responsibility for planning the activities of crèche, including the themes, music, crafts and special events.
The session starts at about 10.40 am after the children come down from the welcome at church, and the children are given a choice of participating in the craft activity, playing with a variety of toys (including lego, toy castles and garages) or looking at books in the reading corner. Every week there is a craft activity which tallies with the week’s bible story – for example when the story was “Moses in the Bulrushes”, the children decorated cardboard Moses Baskets with dolls inside. We try to introduce children to key bible stories. In the Old Testament we have focussed on stories such as creation, Moses, Joseph and Noah’s Ark. In the New Testament we focus on key episodes in Jesus’ life and many of his miracles and parables. When we can, we follow the lectionary used by the main congregation (although we often find that it is too complicated for this very young age group).
At the end of crèche every week, at about 11.15 am, there is a story, prayer and music session before the children return to church. We have about 6 regular musicians who play a variety of instruments to lead the singing, we have developed a crèche songbook of child-friendly worship songs and we have a bible story each week. The children have the same crèche prayer (with actions) every session: “Bless my hair, and bless my toes, bless my ears and bless my nose, bless my elbows, bless each knee, God bless every part of me.” The children also let off some steam with active songs such as “sleeping bunnies” and “the wheels on the bus”.
A number of the families in crèche come from abroad. We have a number of special sessions each year to celebrate some of the Christian festivals of these other countries in addition to the special events already marked by the main congregation, such as Harvest and Palm Sunday. Last year we had a parade of Swedish “Santa Lucias” in December, dressed in their white robes, holding candles and singing Swedish carols. At Epiphany, three fathers dressed up as the Three Kings and appeared from outside, and we ate Spanish Epiphany Cake and had Latin American carols. On Palm Sunday, one of the fathers dressed up and told the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem as a dramatic monologue. At Harvest we made large pictures for display on the altar rails, collected tins of food, and had a joint worship session with St Matthew’s Group complete with songs and a dramatized version of the Parable of the Sower. Later this term we are aiming to add a German Lantern theme for the feast of St Martin in November, we are hoping to reprise the Santa Lucia parade, and we will be making Christingles again in December. The Junior Choir have visited crèche twice in the past year to increase the children’s exposure to church music and a small choir of parents sometimes sings hymns to the children in three parts (soprano, alto, bass).
Crèche is a lively and welcoming group. Many of the children form lasting friendships, as do their parents. There are regular “Dads’ dinners” and “Mums’ dinners” out, which is a good way of thanking the many parents who volunteer to run sessions, and also perform the more mundane tasks such as cleaning the toys each term. We hope that by receiving a warm and fun reception at an early age the children will feel connected with the church and become familiar with its music, stories and traditions. The welcome to the children at the start of the Eucharist each week, their return for communion and regular clergy visits are all important parts of making crèche families feel part of a larger congregation rather than a separate unit. The crèche is keen to forge better links with the main congregation – and if anyone can play an instrument or tell stories to children they are particularly welcome to visit.