Junior Church - Sue Taheny

It has been a very interesting 12 months for Junior Church.

Now we are all used to being in the Hall with the children, we decided to fine tune what we can offer. At the moment we have two groups of children. The 5 – 11 year olds are called Genesis and the over 11s are called Revelation. We try to offer a good 40 minutes of drama, games, activities and readings to the groups with a wonderfully dedicated bunch of leaders and helpers.

We are always interested in any feed back and definitely want to talk to anyone who is potentially interested in becoming a leader or a helper.

Thanks to all parents for your continued support too. Sometimes it is a real privilege to listen to your children's insights and thoughts in relation to their own faith journey.

J.O.H.N. - Liz Sands

The past year has included

• 13 of us going to Soul Survivor, which was awesome!

• A day and night living in a slum raising, £220 for Soul Action in the process.

• Designing and constructing this years big Christmas card. This raised £84 for Great Ormond Street, thank you.

In 2008 we're looking forward to

• Another trip to Soul Survivor in the summer

• Planning a youth event for the festival

• Finding ways to encourage more young people to find God.

A big thank you to everyone involved in J.O.H.N. over the past year.

It would be great to have more people involved, both youth and leaders, please come and talk to me if you're interested.

Children's Advocate - Mildred Atubo

As you may be aware, all places that work with children in the United Kingdom are required by law to have policies regarding the protection and safety of children. Churches are not exempted from this requirement. I have recently been asked to be the Children's Advocate at St Johns. I am writing to inform our audience that this service is available for our children, youth and the community at large.

The role entails among other things

• Speaking up for the needs of children and young people

• Promoting a general awareness of child protection issues and the Diocesan Child Protection Guidelines.

Please do not hesitate to speak with me on any issues relating to the welfare of our children. At St Johns we treat all children and young people with dignity and respect, while also respecting their personal privacy.

I wish you all God's blessings.