Our article this month comes from Sr Claire Maxwell, member of the Youth and Children’s Committee, and minister at Lower Wyke Moravian Church.

Forest Church begin as an idea inspired by God’s creation, the beautiful space we have at Lower Wyke known in the village as ‘The Paddock’ and having seen various Forest Church and Forest Schools. It also reflected the fact that families, particularly those with younger children often find outdoor spaces far more relaxing than indoor ones and that God is very much in nature as much as a church building.

The team that came together were enthusiastic about children’s ministry, with some clear specialisms in under 5’s and very artistic and creative souls. We also needed (and got!) people happy to run the fire pit safely.

So how does Forest Church at Lower Wyke work?

There is a familiar structure to it that families who have come for all three sessions run so far since its inception in September 2025 may have begun to spot.

We begin with some sort of active game – a treasure hunt or a game like ‘scarecrow tig/stuck in the mud’ but adapted in some way to reflect the theme of the session. This allows the children to run off their wonderful energy and give parents enough time to fill sign in sheets in, or forms if it is their first time, and to just take a moment to breathe.

Then we gather and a member of the team explains the layout of the rest of our time together which is:

Welcome – welcoming people back, explaining the order of things and our theme.

Gathering – go and gather in some materials from nature to make our Land Art piece together.

Storytelling – this is a story from the Bible that relates to our theme. For instance, this last January our theme was ‘God’s love of animal and bird in Creation’ and we talked about the story of Noah.

Land Art – we make a part of the story together: we did a ‘Rainbow’ using the colours nature gave us to talk about our Noah’s story a bit more and deepen our learning into doing.

Craft – We then go further and deepen our understanding with a take home craft. In January we created a fat ball for birds to be able to feed off, encouraging us as humans to care for God’s creatures.

Fire pit – Smores, hot chocolates. Followed by prayers, songs if we wish, and a blessing.

What have we found?

Families come and seem very happy to join us in most weathers. We moved inside for November’s session because it was torrential rain, but even then, went outside in our Gathering section to give the children a chance to run around a bit but return to the warmth.

Communication with families is key. We email them the night before and also put on our Facebook group the weather forecast and our plans – if we plan to stay outside or head in at all. We, also, try and suggest what to wear (e.g., wellies, gloves, hats or if we ever get so lucky sun cream). We do this to try and ensure no one is miserable because they haven’t dressed appropriately.

Who comes?

It is aimed at families, but we have had all generations come along – aunties and uncles, great aunties, grandparents as well as parents. None family linked people are welcome, but our advertisement is focused on those connected with children as we recognised that our hope as a church community is to keep building up family links. This is partly because Lower Wyke has already a strong family ministry with our Adventures youth group, Sunday School and various family focused outreach days.

Data:

September 2025 – We had 22 none team members come.

November 2025 – We had 18 none team members come.

January 2026 – We had 17 none team members come and join us.

We have a team of five core with one person happy to step in and do the Firepit when needed and another who brings down the hot chocolate when she can, which makes it one less thing for the team to focus on doing.

Of our families, some come from Lower Wyke connection, one family has a Horton connection, but some have no traditional connection to a Moravian Church. In January we had two new families come who haven’t come to anything run at Lower Wyke ever before.

We have five families who have come more than once. It is, undoubtedly, early days. Yet we can see that even in the harshest of weathers we have had a good turnout of people. In our last session it was wonderful to have a family from Bailiffe Bridge join us, an area we are hoping to outreach to as a focus over the next year.

Things take time but Forest Church feels good. The team are brilliant, capable and relaxed, setting the tone well for the sessions. Families have time together to connect as a lot of it is very free, and our time at the end around the firepit whilst people have smores (marshmallows on chocolate biscuits) and hot chocolate is very restful and inclusive (with dairy free and vegan options always available).

Would you recommend people giving it a go?

Yes, if you look at your context and see families turning to outside spaces as a preference. It was really interesting to have a new family come in January and say how good it was to have an outside event for families and as they left, they said see you in March. Our experience has been that God has blessed us in the people who have come and so far, it feels like a healthy expression of God’s love for everyone. Being in God’s creation makes it a very sacred space.