Over winter, Church Mice have been multiplying across our Diocese. Now they are ready to begin their exploration of the world.

Over the month of October, collections of little home-crafted mice, each unique, will be appearing in a number of our smaller churches. They are there as gifts and blessings to any who may drop by. 

You'll see little bits of paper attached to these Hilda and George Mice. They're Bible verses to cheer the visitor along. Each Mouse also comes with a bookmark which tells a story behind the name of the Church (which is often the name of the Mouse too). 

We hope that some people will decide to collect whole sets of mice across the Lakes, Central and Alps to Ocean. Diana Langdon of Strandz, who designed our beautiful wee mouse logo, is also designing a pamphlet that we'll be able to distribute around tourist centres and bike-hire places.  

This map shows where the mice are ready to go, and a few places where mystery mice may still appear!

The experiences of these churches who have trialled the Mice proves that they really will be popular and are worth doing in terms of inviting people into our spaces and living out grace and joy. 

Some Dunedin churches have chosen to partner with a little church to help them make enough Mice to keep visitors happy. If any other "bigger" churches or craft-minded individuals would like to help, that would be wonderful! That doesn't mean, however, that you can't join in the fun if you're in Dunedin or from a bigger church. You're welcome to start off your own mouse - the more the merrier! Just have a look at the guidelines below and let Anne know.  (enabler@calledsouth.org.nz).

A reminder of how to do this

A. Each church that wants to be involved decides on a craft mouse which will be their unique mouse. It may be knitted or crocheted, made of wood or made from local stones glued together—or whatever your local skills are. Just one design per church!

B. Give the mouse a name! It may be the saint of your church (St Mary Mouse, James Mouse… or just Jimmy!) or some other appropriate name for your place.

C. Choose a Bible verse or two or three, again fitting for your place, and encouraging for any who come. Have them on little slips of paper which can be rolled up very small and attached somewhere on the mouse (tail or leg).

D. Make as many of these as you can, and find a prominent place in the church that you can display them along with an honesty box and a suggested donation if you like (for example, a gold coin).

E. Let Anne van Gend know the name of your mouse and give me a photo of him/her. I will then produce a brochure that we can give to the bike hire places and tourist places, outlining a Mouse Pilgrimage that cyclists or others can do, where they collect a full “set” of church mice as they travel. We can have a Central Set, a Southern Set, a Lakes Set and a Waitaki Set. If anyone ever collected all four sets, maybe we could have some acknowledgement from the diocese or something?!