By Tamsin Kilgour (From Seeds October 2021)

Since the start of the school year, Junior Church and Crèche have been mirroring the congregation’s gradual return to the church building for Sunday worship.

On weeks where the congregation are gathering in AUC, we are providing Junior Church activities in the building; when the service is online, we will provide materials for the children to use at home. In response to parent preference, Junior Church leaders will be doing a lateral flow test before leading the group.

As another step back towards our previous pattern, we have an overarching theme for the year, alongside monthly topics. For the first few months, we’re choosing activities that will give the children (and leaders) time to reconnect after 18 months spent mainly apart.

Our theme for this year is ‘Journeying with God’. In September we focussed on Creation. The children designed and made a panel for the ‘Art for the Planet’ banner, which will be displayed on the front of New College on the Mound during COP26. Everything used was gathered from homes, not bought.

After celebrating Harvest on 3 October, our theme for the rest of October will be ‘Leaders/people in the Old Testament’.