There was disappointment at St Mark's URC, Amble in the days before Christmas. The church had worked hard on a Treefest to take place over three days, December 16-18, and had invited people to come and see the Christmas trees and enjoy mince pies. And there was a special invitation for children to join a Messy Church session on Saturday afternoon, as well as to families to share in the concluding Festival Service on Sunday afternoon.
The church looked great - but sadly, despite advertising all round the town, very few people came, and no children at all on Saturday afternoon. Trying to look on the bright side, church secretary Sue Swanston said "Though it was a non-event for the community, for St Mark's it was a fun time!"
However, when the church came to analyse what had gone wrong, they realised that more people had been involved than had turned up. The mayor and town council members as well as members of a variety of church-linked individuals and 
organisations had provided festive trees - and of course St Mark's own congregation had been involved in all sorts of ways. And though people had felt let down by the community newspaper's failure to publicise the event, they realised that there were lots of rival activities at the time, and they also realised that plenty of genuine apologies had been received.
Northern Synod's Mission4Life fund had provided a grant for craft equipment and other materials for Messy Church. St Mark's are determined that these are going to be well-used in the future - and as they reconsider their plans in the light of experience they are talking about taking St Mark's welcome to those on the messy edges of the church and the community.
Watch this space, they say, for more news of St Mark's Messy Mission.