ALL Saints Parish Church in Okehampton is the first in Devon to launch its own Lego Church to encourage more families with young children through the doors.

Lego Church is an initiative that has made its way across the Atlantic, first to Liverpool, then to a church near Stafford and now to Okehampton.

Rector of Okehampton Rev Stephen Cook explained: ’Lego Church is very different to conventional church. When people arrive there is plenty of Lego to play with and they can just build whatever they want.

’We have some drinks and snacks and a Bible story and then go back to the tables and try to build something that the story makes us think about. Then we show everyone what we have made and if possible say why we made it. Then we have some prayers and pack up.

’ Because we can’t keep the models we take some pictures so we can build up a scrap book. The idea is for adults and children to think, learn and play together.’

Rev Cook added: ’We have been puzzling about what we might do to make church more accessible to families with young children" he said.

’Many churches do "Messy Church", which is a great idea but for a variety of reasons we did not feel it was quite us. Then I heard about this, quite by chance, and immediately thought "That’s it!"

’We got hold of masses of Lego and after lots of thinking and planning we have finally held the first one. We had no idea what was going to happen but we had a really lovely time. We may be one of very few churches in the country doing this now, but I am sure there will soon be a lot more.’

’Lego has been around such a long time because it is a wonderful toy and because it is so easy to be creative with it. I can tell you for sure the adults had just as much fun as the children: after all, who doesn’t want to play with Lego?’

Lego Church takes place at 4pm on the last Saturday of every month in the Church hall in Market Street, opposite the cinema. The next one is on October 30. Anyone is welcome but children must be accompanied by a responsible adult. It is free but donations are welcome.

Picture above shows: Sophie Hensberg with Lego Church helper Ben Cook