St Paul's Cathedral in London has held a 'Messy Church' event, a style of church gathering that aims to welcome families who wouldn't normally go to church. 

The event sold out, with 600 parents and children attending. 

The large building near the City had a table to make an animation video, an olive tree to tie prayers to and people dressed up at the apostle Paul and Christopher Wren, who designed the building. 

Alex Taylor, children's ministry trainer for the Diocese of London, explained the idea behind the unconventional church gathering: "Not everyone has the free time on the Sunday morning to dedicate to going to church, maybe their children have football or dancing, or they get just get involved in family time. There are often other times where families can gather together, so Messy Church seeks to use that."

Speaking just before the doors opened on Saturday, Alex told Premier: "It helps people engage with the Bible through lots of different creative activities, they will engage with some worship, there might be some food, there'll be some story-telling, and there'll be lots of different activity tables that people can get involved with, that might be creating bookmarks, it might be creating a picture that represents something that they've learned about God that morning, it might be a science activity or it might be a sense of reflection and creative path that people can do to engage with God as part of their response to the Bible story."

Mr Taylor said they hoped that resources on the gospel message might then be read and considered when families get home.