Host a picnic event

Weather permitting, picnics are a wonderful way to bring people of all ages together. Sharing food along with light-touch ways to encourage prayer and reflection can strengthen bonds, not just between godparents and godchildren, but also between families and their local church.

For the first time, the Life Events team is partnering with Messy Church to equip churches with ideas, resources and inspiration to draw families together from the local community and celebrate the godparent/godchild relationship.

July is national picnic month, and since so many forms of successful mission involve sharing a meal of some kind, Godparents’ Sunday seems an ideal opportunity to meet and welcome families with fun, food and faith.

Here you’ll find a range of resources, many of them free of charge, to help publicise and run your picnic event, whether you choose to have on the national date (July 11th) or on a different day of your choice. Resources are provided with either a Church of England logo or a Messy Church logo – choose whichever suits your context the best.

PUBLICITY

HIGH QUALITY READY-PRINTED POSTERS

You can now buy ready-printed full colour posters to publicise your picnic. There are different options depending on whether you are running it on the national Godparents’ Sunday date of July 11th, or on your own date. There are also options to choose posters branded with either Messy Church or Church of England:-

• • Poster with date, Church of England-branded
  • Poster with date, Messy Church-branded
  • Date-free poster, Church of England-branded
  • Date-free poster, Messy Church-branded

HIGH QUALITY READY-PRINTED INVITATIONS

These printed invitations can be put in the post or handed out to families wherever you meet them – at a toddler group for example, or an existing Messy Church gathering.

• • Invitation with date, Church of England-branded
  • Invitation with date, Messy Church-branded
  • Date-free invitation, Church of England-branded
  • Date-free invitations, Messy Church-branded

FREE INVITATIONS TO DOWNLOAD

These full colour invitations are free to download and then can be used to email your contacts with the invite attached:

• • Invitations – Messy Church branded
  • Invitations – Church of England branded

FREE SOCIAL MEDIA IMAGES TO DOWNLOAD

• • Social media images with the national date included – use these pre-sized images to publicise your event through Twitter, FaceBook and Instagram.
  • Social media images without the national date included – use these pre-sized images to publicise your event through Twitter, FaceBook and Instagram.

THE DAY OF THE PICNIC

• A handout of great ideas for the picnic activities is offered on the Messy Church website (link open s a PDF).
• ‘Praying godparent’ pin badges to give away.
• ‘Blessed godchild’ pin badges to give away.
• Business-card-sized prayer cards which can be given away, or included in mailings to baptism families.