Wild Church 25th July 2021

Thanks to Emma, Hannah and Rachael for the above photos of our lovely afternoon spent in Clippesby's normally tranquil Churchyard. It was our first Wild Church Sevice here and was so enjoyable. It followed on from others that have taken place in the benefice at Thurne and Martham.

We were blessed with a warm, sunny afternoon despite weather forecasts predicting thunderstorms. The Rector, Steven, led us in a short service to start with, emphasising how we should care for God's marvellous creation including the little creatures that we would be searching for.

There were sheets of pictures of bugs that we could expect to see and many of them were found; grasshoppers hopping about everwhere; blue damsel flies; woodlice hiding under stones: slugs and snails shielding from the sun and a shy toad in a hole and many more little creatures.

The children enthusiastically helped to build a fivestar Bug Hotel from Wooden pallets that Sally just happened to have. Jo and Fran were overseeing and encouraging this while Linda had a couple of tables of craft activities to attrac the children. They made butterflies and other things. Nathaniel had a good fire going in true boyscout fashion with Emma giving out sticks and marshmallows to toast. Steven's and Chrissie's hot chocolate 'stall' did a roaring trade.

The afternoon ended with prayers and and Steven on his guitar for us to join in with singing 'Who put the Colours in the Rainbow'. How really great it was to actually sing together! Singing is something that has been sadly missed during the Pandemic. Indeed we still don't sing in our services inside the church.

The next Wild Church Service in the Benefice is at Repps Churchyard in September.