For those not so keen on Halloween, the Itchen Valley Parish held the most amazing light party at St John’s Itchen Abbas last night.  Walking up the path enjoying the new St John’s lighting, we ran into a fantastic array of lights into the ever flexible space of St John’s.

Lights up the path were complimented by images projected onto the walls of the church.

Once inside the warm church, the fun really began with a huge Scaletrix set – a delight for the boys (and for the Dads) and an autumnal hedgehog and lantern production line (I should say ‘a craft’)…

a photo booth

and then completely delicious food

popcorn ice cream

and a talk by Julia Wright on how we need light to avoid getting hurt or getting lost and we need it not just at night, but in our lives and that Jesus is that light.

It was so wonderful to see so many people there – I lost count after counting 30 children and then a further 15 or 20 supporting adults – many of whom had never been to anything organised by the church in Itchen Valley Parish before.

Many many thanks to everyone involved in helping get everything together.  Thank you in particular to Tim Clapp for leading us, to Claire Hunt and Julia Wright, to James Greig, Sarah Hunt, Beccy Clark, Verity Greig, James Wright, Susie Brine and Vernon Tottle.  Some comments so far:’It was brilliant!” ‘so wonderful to see so many smiley children having a happy and fun time in church’ ‘we really enjoyed being part of it and our children had so much fun”[our eldest] said that he had a great time’.’everyone was so welcoming and friendly’

Thank you all so much – what a great new event for the Itchen Valley Parish calendar!

Revd.  Alex Pease