Family Services at St John’s are our chance to get everyone from ‘normal’ church and St John’s Kids Club celebrating together. We have our Family Services on special occasions and our children and young people spend the whole service in church.

What makes them different? Well, instead of the usual sermon we have something a bit more family-friendly. This can be an informal talk, or a story (like at Epiphany, when the Vicar tells us the story of the Three Wise Men). We like to have some special music and songs that we can all join in with as well.

We like dressing up and having processions around the church, and if we can tie that in with the church service, so much the better. Dressing up isn’t only for the kids though. If the clergy can wear funny clothes, and the children can wear funny clothes why can’t the mums and dads too?

We like to keep things simple and use a translation of the Bible that we can all understand, and we try to make sure the service doesn’t go on too long and that we don’t get bored. No one minds if things get a bit noisy and rowdy!

Like all our Sunday mornings, our Family Services are Eucharists. Whenever we meet as God’s family we give thanks and praise and celebrate God’s presence with us. Normally our children and young people do that in their own way in Kid’s Club and join the grown-ups for communion. But our Family Services are a really good opportunity to come together. Check out this site or the notices in St John’s to see when the next one is.