The Church of Ireland Board for Ministry with Children and Families is delighted to introduce our new Worship and Wonder bags, now available from the Church of Ireland online shop for €3/£2.50 each. You can click to buy them HERE.

Along with our recently launched Child-friendly and Accessible version of the Book of Common Prayer, these bags help children to feel welcomed and valued in our churches.

These are not “distraction tools” nor are they bags to make the children “keep quiet”. They are created to help children engage with worship in age-appropriate ways.

Children are spiritual just as much as adults, but as with all aspects of life they express and explore their faith in ways that are different to adults, so it is important that as a family church encourage and enable them to do so.

Even if you don’t have children regularly attending your church these bags are a key way of helping families to feel welcomed when they do come. We would encourage you to have these bags easily available in the pews, or if you have a welcome team who can give them to the children as they come into the Church even better!

We also have activity sheets that you can download and print from our website, and you might like to think about other items you could add, potentially changing what it is in them during the different seasons.

To download the accompanying activity sheets click HERE 

The bags and books themselves are left in the church and only the activity sheets are taken away by the family.

Some ideas for additional items:

• A wooden holding/prayer cross
• Ribbons
• Finger puppets
• Small sensory toys