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| apologies for a wonky perspective |
The plan was to travel to a different church almost every morning. I thought, "I needn't have worked so hard to find a B&B close by our training location." But then we found that one of us on the course is a priest. We are training in a parish center, so it is agreed that from now on we'll start the day with him saying mass for us in a chapel here. My B&B choice is justified after all!
We then had coffee in the atrium, so as to get a quick sense of where it is and what it looks like, and then we were off to a clasroom space for a morning's lecture. Before beginning, though, Linda asked each of us to introduce ourselves. The majority are Dutch, but some of us have traveled from farther afield, including Norway and Japan, and are originally from countries such as India, Argentina, and Brazil (though all those participants now live in Europe).
We are asked to share not just names and origins, but a bit about how we had discovered CGS and why we had chosen to come this week. I am the only person to mention Godly Play; the only spark of recognition I get comes from a recent convert from the Lutheran Church. Oh, and nobody calls it CGS, although Linda writes it that way in her notes. Some say the whole mouthful, some only "Catechesis", and some "The Good Shepherd"!
When I was a child my family belonged to an evangelical Protestant church. I remember missionaries coming to speak about their evangelistic efforts in foreign lands. Some, at least, saw Roman Catholics as being as much in need of salvation as they did the pagan. As our tutor, Linda, talked today about the catechist as "matchmaker" between the child and Jesus, I couldn't help but imagine these foreign missionaries collapsing in a faint.
Linda continues, "Christianity is about someone", emphasizing that last syllable.
Interestingly enough, I was the only non-Catholic participant in my Godly Play core training here in Germany. It was a wonderful experience to learn with Catholic brothers and sisters.
ReplyDeleteThat IS interesting to me, Sheila! I hope it's clear that I'm not in agreement with those missionaries but do recognize these catechists as brothers and sisters in Christ.
DeleteI haven't been to your blog for a couple of weeks, but hooked on pinning instead. Lol When I saw your CGS post I got immediately excited. After finding Leslie's blog through your Pinterest page, I have been wanting to learn more about CGS and even looked up some trainings in my area. Although not a possibility at this point with little kids, I can dream and plan, right? Now that you are giving us a play by play, it helps me have more patience. I am excited to see what things you have to share with us. It is interesting about the missionaries as that is the same impression I got as a young child, and am thrilled I have access to learn from these brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Reading from the many catechesis blogs has helped me tremendously and moved me to look into training. It is such a blessing that we have access to each other through the internet. It has made me a better storyteller and consider you all and refer to you as friends when talking with parents, council members and church members.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sweeter, for your encouraging comment. I agree that the support that blogs can provide, even if one "just" reads without entering into dialogue, can be phenomenal. And yes, Leslie's blog is wonderful.
DeleteOne other thought: I do get frustrated with GP at times, because there are not stories about certain people in the Bible that I would love to tell a story about. For ex., Deborah, Hannah, Esther, etc. Being able to write my own presentations would certainly change that. I hope that you will share a little more about that process.
ReplyDeleteIn the article that you linked to earlier comparing the two concepts, the author mentioned that GP assumes a knowledge of the Bible and theology and that GoGS does not. But how in the world would you begin to write a presentation if you didn't have that base? How did your group begin with the Annunciation presentation?
I'm speaking here as someone still very new to this program! I guess a catechist might offer young children storybooks about such people outside of the CoGS setting.
DeleteThe only CoGS presentations for young children from the OT, I think, are Messianic prophecies. (I could be wrong.) Every CoGS lesson has an explicit primary aim, which is never merely "to learn about person X" unless person X is Jesus, in which case it's not just "to learn about" but "to learn about in order to come into relationship with".
And wouldn't you know it - I was wrong. Today we had a presentation on Psalm 23:1. (But still no sign of any Level 1 stories about Deborah, Hannah, or Esther.)
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