Renewal of our "Child Friendly Church Award", 2013

At the 10.30 a.m. parade service, on Sunday 12^th May 2013, Jeremy introduced Sue Mitchell.  Sue is the “Children and Families Missioner for the Diocese of Liverpool”.  She had come to the church to present us with our renewed “Child Friendly Church Award”.

She was also there to tell us that receipt of the award was not the end but the beginning of the process.  She asked us about the differences between children and adults.  She asked us whether teenagers were children or adults!  She then challenged us to tell her who was the greatest person there present.  

Nobody spoke up but she then said, in the light of reading that we had just heard (Matthew 18 verses 1-5), and particularly verses 3 and 4, “[Jesus] said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”, would we like to revise our opinions.  She stressed the importance of genuinely valuing and welcoming children to the church.  .  Finally, she posed the question, “would people look at our church and say, ‘that’s a wonderful place for children and young people?’” and, “if not, why not?  And what are we going to do about it?”

Thank you for coming, Sue.  It was indeed a challenging talk!