St Francis’ Church serves the Dalgarno Estates, part of North Kensington home to more than 4,000 people. It was built around the same time as the estates, in the 1930s, and has been ministering to the residents ever since. Jean Elliott is the Family and Children’s Minister and here she shares the story of one of the initiatives she runs.
STARS stands for STraight AfteR School and is Messy Church in style and ethos, but with its own distinctive St Francis flavour! It happens each Monday in term-time from 3.30 to 5pm. On Monday 6 March 2017, it celebrated its third birthday with party poppers and chocolate cake! (This also happened to be our 100th STARS gathering!)
We’ve much to be thankful to God for. Over the three years, STARS has developed a real sense of community. Families are glad to see each other each week and it’s great to see children from several local schools making friends. About 225 people have been to STARS at some time or another, with numbers currently at about 45 people per week. Many families have been part of STARS for well over a year now and at least eight families (25 people) have been coming right from the start. A significant number come every week and many more come when their after-school commitments allow them to.
An important landmark for us was a baptism at STARS last November. We’ve also held three STARS Christingle services to which lots of extra people have come. Many of the STARS families are very local, living on the estates surrounding the church. Recently we started STARS Xtra on alternate Wednesdays after school, for those families who would like some time and space to look at the Bible story we’ve thought about in Monday STARS, and to pray together. This group is small at present, but it’s exciting to see God at work.
Our STARS team is small but God is doing something special and the families themselves are fully involved in making toast and clearing up as well as making STARS the vibrant, welcoming place it is. We’re looking forward to the Bishop of Kensington coming to visit us in May, and we hope he feels welcome too!
If you’d like to start a congregation or community like STARS to reach out to families in your parish, get in touch with the Diocese of London Children’s and Youth team and we’ll be able to help you get going!
_Jean Elliott is Family and Children’s Ministry at St Francis Kensington. She loves helping children and families explore the Bible._