We love having so many families, children and young people as part of our St Stephen’s church family. We run a variety of age-appropriate activities most Sunday mornings, plus other events throughout the year.

Sundays

Alongside our 10.30am service most Sundays we run groups for youth and children. These are zany and fun, while also learning more about God and our relationship with Him. Our youth and children start in the service with everyone else and after a short time (which is announced during the service) they will leave for their groups. At the end of the service we ask parents and carers to collect their child from their group (other than Younger Elements and Older Elements groups who will return to the church building). Our groups are organised as follows:

Little Stars (for children who are walking to end Year R)
Younger KIC (school years 1 to 3)
Older KIC (school years 4 to 6)
Younger Elements (school years 7 to 9)
Older Elements (school years 10 to 13)

Registering for Sunday morning groups

If you’re visiting us we’ll ask you to register your child when they arrive at their group. For all children who are part of St Stephen’s, we ask parents or carers to update their details every year (this is in September, although if you need to, you can update their details at any time).

Fridays

Between 7pm to 9pm on Friday evenings our Older Elements (school years 10 to 13) meet in our Community Centre on Waterloo Road to relax, to study the Bible, and to pray together.

Registering for Friday Elements

You only need to register with us once-a-year, so if you’ve registered already (see the info about ‘Registering for Sunday morning groups‘ above) you don’t need to do a separate registration for Fridays. But for any youth who haven’t registered, we ask parents or carers to update their details every year.

Thursday morning play space

Every Thursday (10am to 1pm) the church space is transformed into a play area for pre-school-aged children, with a variety of toys and activities available. Our café is also open to buy drinks, cakes and light lunches (our café is also open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, although without the play space).

Other events

We also have other activities going on throughout the year. Take a look at our youth page for details of regular events for teenagers. We’ll also update our calendar whenever we are running any additional activities for youth, children and families.

Safeguarding

Care and welfare of our youth and children is a priority for us. For more information please visit the Church of England safeguarding page or the Diocese of Rochester Safeguarding page. Or if you would like to talk to someone please speak to Hannah Penlington, our Youth and Children’s Advocate (contact Hannah) or Jan Smith, our Parish Safeguarding Officer (contact Jan).

Who to contact

We have so many brilliant volunteers, without whom none of what we do would be possible. This team is led by Rachael Hosier, our Youth and Children’s Pastor (contact Rachael).