Fourth Advent

After three weeks of Advent observed in three different countries, today I was back in Finland. As I did on Second Advent, I presented the Godly Play lesson to the whole congregation. I encouraged adults to move further forward for this, and on the floor in front of me I had a familiar group of four children. 

It's a long post today. It's a long lesson! Berryman says, "Do not minimize or rush the story," but realistically speaking it is often going to be the case that one has to shorten it a little, especially the parts you've told before. This can be done, however, without rushing and without trivializing them. 

So I reviewed the season of Advent, with its purple color (seen on our altar / focal shelf but not on our pulpit fall, which is always black), and the need to get ready to enter or come close to a Mystery. I reviewed the prophets, who we remember on First Advent, and the Holy Family on the Road to Bethlehem from Second Advent. Then I told the story of the shepherds watching over their flocks by night, who were blinded by a dazzling light. 

Once again, I am grateful to a mother who took an amazing number of photos with my ipad during the telling. And now, I notice how much detritus there is about us in the photo. The children were "playing and praying" both before and after this lesson. In fact, some found it very difficult to tear themselves away from what they were working on when I asked them to come listen. 

Looking through the pictures, though, it was striking how much of the time all of the children were really intent upon the story. One child lay down, but was watching and listening.

Did you notice in the first photos that the candles were already lit? That was one of the first things that happened in the service today. Not only that, but the candles were introduced according to the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, which is a very different system from the one that Godly Play follows. The Godly Play ordering was used in American Protestant liturgical churches for decades, long before they adopted the RCL. (The RCL's system surely has long roots elsewhere.)

I was not too bothered either by the fact that the candles were introduced with different symbolism or that they were already lit. I just mentioned once or twice, without making a very big deal about it, that there are different systems in use. And after telling the stories and placing the figures onto my underlay, I lifted down the candles one by one, and placed them by the figures. 

Today I used the Sacred Story questions for Wondering. I wonder which part of the Advent story you like best. You can say out loud if you want, but you don't have to. Nobody has to answer. Nobody did answer. 

I wonder what part of the Advent story you think is the most important. Thoughtful looks, but no words. 

I wonder where you are in the Advent story. Or where you are in terms of getting ready for the Mystery of Christmas. Are you ready for Christmas? Maybe you feel like the wise men - like you'll probably be late! Maybe you feel like you're shivering in the cold night air, trying to stay awake to keep the sheep safe... or maybe you can hear the song of the angels. 

I'm afraid I got rather long-winded. A budding preacher, that's what I am! 

Sometimes there are women who feel a lot like Mary during Advent, because they too are expecting a baby! You might feel like the prophets, that you know what is important but you fear that people aren't listening, and that it's going to take years and years and years before what's supposed to happen does happen. I wonder where you are on the road to Bethlehem.

And then once again I asked the children to snuff out the candles change the light. I liked doing it this way, although it occurs to me that it might be a bad precedent to do it this way too often. I might not be able to go back to doing it myself. [I also realized, and said, that the service leader would probably want to re-light them for the rest of the service, once we'd gone back to "playing and praying".]

And then I began to put things away. Even without taking the Holy Family back up to the altar (in case a child wanted to work with it), there was a lot to put away. It took time. 

But look. Although one child has (understandably) turned away, at least two children watched intently right through to the very end. 

Advent in Lent

This week a child chose to work with story materials during our response time. This is a rare event, and one that makes me inordinately pleased.

I managed to keep out of the way, except for trying to help two other children ask if they could watch and/or join in, and suggesting that it would be best to lift out (with two hands) the top basket of candles and set them aside, for easier access to the plaques stored underneath.

(Misleading photo - the Christ candle is not kept with the Advent materials)

The two gawkers were unwilling to ask for permission to watch, so I shooed them back to the art materials they had originally chosen to work with. Which also helped to get me out of there. I felt it was extra-important for me to stay out of the way since (with seethroughfaith still traveling) the second adult in the classroom was someone who does not know these materials and was curious about them. She started asking questions and I was very proud of what I overheard: 

The child managed to answer the questions, sometimes with correct answers, sometimes with I forget or I don't know. A few questions which didn't get answered at first, What's that black squiggle on the second plaque? What does the pink candle represent? did get answered eventually, perhaps as working with the materials triggered memories. But frankly, I was almost as proud of the I don't knows and I forgets. Those can be hard things to say. And it can be hard to work with materials when someone is watching every move you make, so I was pleased that he carried on. I was glad to hear that many of the adult's questions were "True Questions" (ones she didn't already know the answer to). This meant that the child was the expert, and hopefully had a sense of enjoyment in demonstrating the materials to the newcomer.

If I'd stayed nearby, I would have been tempted to remind him that the Advent materials are presented from left to right, not vertically as the Lent materials are. But in fact, I made the same "mistake" myself the first time I ever saw the Advent materials, which was (just like for him) immediately after seeing a presentation of the Faces of Easter. I laid out those Advent cards to have a record of what they looked like - and the result was the photo on the right.

Boxing Day

[This is the last in a series of posts about our first Godly Play sessions, last December, in my own house.]

Christmas Day last year fell on a Saturday, and our pastor chose to have a service on Christmas Day rather than on Boxing Day. So on the fourth Sunday of Advent, I had asked Vandriver to make an announcement at church inviting folks to join us at our house on the following Sunday, Boxing Day, where we had Junior Church for all ages.

By this time, the child owner of our alternative nativity set had been given additional figures, including a shepherd, two sheep, and three wise men. 

photo from my friend, stf

It was interesting to watch the interaction of adults (who felt obliged to keep their children in line) and children (who knew the rules and customs of Junior Church). The children started right away to replace my nativity set with theirs.
The parents said, No no. Leave it alone. 

I said, The children are right - that is how we begin.
I made my own blunder, however, when one child pulled out another wooden toy. I acknowledged what it was, but said, too quickly and dismissively, but that doesn't belong here. The child was very upset, and later the mother explained that they had created a little story at home about why that extra toy was in Bethlehem. I still don't think I'd have wanted that toy on the focal shelf, but I do have to learn to be more willing to interrupt myself to listen properly to what the children have to say. 

I presented the Advent IV lesson, with the addition of a feature from the "Children's Liturgy for Christmas Eve", which was to ask everyone to sing the first verse of an appropriately themed Christmas carol while I fetched the figures and lit each candle. In this lesson, I "revealed" what the children had already discovered for themselves, that the fifth section of the underlay is white instead of purple. I had no time to ask what was missing (as recommended in the script), before one child scrambled right down off the parent's lap to fetch the Christ candle for me! 

We went straight from the lesson into something in between a Godly Play feast and a post-church coffee time, where again there was a mismatch between adults' and children's expectations - one child carefully opened napkins into Godly Play "tables" on the floor in front of each person, which didn't work at all since most of the adults were sitting on chairs! 

I was also a little sorry to find out later that although I announced that people should feel free to ask to sing more carols or to work with materials during the coffee time, one adult told me later that is was too hard to do so. One child happily got some plasticine out, but the adult felt compelled to sit and sip a hot drink and chat with the other adults. I suppose one contributing factor is that my living room is so small - there was not really enough room to create an individual space to work in. 

My biggest regret about the evening (despite the lack of space!) was in not extending the invitation further. We got a phone call from one couple who had missed the announcement about there not being church, asking why nobody was at the church building. They didn't feel up to coming to our house at that point, but just went home again, disappointed. But for those of us who did come together, it was a warm and festive evening.

photo by stf :)

Advent - a third child

[I've travelled back in time, to tell about our first Godly Play sessions, last December, in my own house.]

By the fourth Sunday in Advent (our third session in my house), I was confident enough to invite another young child from church to join us for Junior Church at my house while the adults had grown-up church elsewhere. There was never any feeling that I had missed church - this was church for me those Sundays.

Once again, we began by carefully replacing my nativity set with the one belonging to one of the children. During the lesson it was easy to change the words of the story from the original, See how the Christ Child is holding out his arms to give you a hug into something more appropriate for these figures: See how the Christ Child is smiling at you. And I suddenly realized that just as I had used the angel to remember the shepherds' experience, so I could use the star to represent the journey of the Magi.

Haba nativity set

I had a certain amount of control as the leader, but not complete control. Towards the end of the lesson I said, Let's enjoy the light, fully prepared to sit for a minute in silence, watching the candles. Snuff them out! Snuff them out! was the immediate, excited cry from one of the children. Oh well! I guess that's the give and take of community.*

Again, all of us wound up "playing with clay" (plasticine) during the response time, but once Junior Church was over and we were waiting for the parents to come back, one child chose to work with the Advent materials and, as in the previous week, was quietly insistent that I want to work alone. The third child, who had opted to go back to the clay, also ended up working alone.

But unexpectedly (to me), this child was unhappy to be alone. At the time I interpreted it as a personality thing (introvert vs extrovert), and maybe that was part of it, but I've now read that it might also be a developmental thing. If I understood right, children under 4-5 are more likely to play individually or in parallel (together but separately), whereas over the age of 4-5 they want to have playmates. Anyway, my response was, When the others are done with what they're doing, you can invite them to come play with you. And that seemed satisfactory.

*Maybe I should add / explain that in Godly Play the "changing of the light" (snuffing out the candles) is a big deal. The children are encouraged to pay special attention to that part, so it's no wonder the Snuff them out child was looking forward to that part of the lesson.