A crib service

[please bear with me as I come to grips with a new photo editor!] 

Today our congregation held a Christmas carol service. It was broadly inspired by the traditional Anglican service of lessons and carols, but having had an Advent lessons and carols service already earlier in December, Vandriver designed this one around the Christmas story itself. And I, thinking of Berryman's "Children's Liturgy for Christmas Eve" (and of English "crib" services), asked for a table at the back of the chapel to be set up with a purple underlay on it.

Earlier in the week, and again before the service, I explained to children my plan to carry Holy Family figures from "the Advent table" to the altar during our congregational carols. I said they'd be welcome to help me if they wanted.

At first nobody wanted to help. This was something entirely new to them, so I was prepared for the possibility that they might find the idea overwhelming. During our opening hymn I myself brought a sheep and the cow / ox to the altar. 

But during the second carol, after the reading of the Annunciation to Joseph, I was joined, not for the procession down the aisle but at the altar, by the oldest child present (aged 7). Together we placed Mary and Joseph on the altar.

After the reading of Mary's visit to Elizabeth I carried the donkey to the altar, and after the reading of the birth of Jesus, the same child and I brought forward the manger and infant Christ. Next I brought the second sheep and the shepherd. After the reading about the presentation of Jesus in the temple, "seethroughfaith" and I carried the Baptismal dove (in this case representing one of two doves presented as a sacrifice) and a candle (a light to lighten the Gentiles) up to the altar. 

Then it was time for the Christmas Gospel - John 1:1-14. Following this, the child was ready to carry up the figure of the Risen Christ, unbound by time or space. 

We did not have a reading about the magi, since they will arrive "late" (as Berryman has it), which is to say next week. But still, during the closing music, the child and I fetched the magi figures, the last standing on the Advent table. As we walked forward I offered one to another child, who had up until now gently declined any offers to participate. 

This time, it was accepted. 

On the other hand, the child below (aged only 4) continued to decline to join in. Which was also fine! We happened to leave church together so I was able to give this child a little hug and say, I don't really mind whether you carry things up to the front with us or not. The important thing to me is that you were here! 

After all, as I said to the child's mother as we walked along, we don't force all adult congregants to read Scripture or lead intercessions. Why should children be required to take public roles in the service? 

And as we approached the crosswalk, that child (the 4-year-old) took my hand.

Third Advent

(I'm posting this from Stockholm Arlanda airport, and having a little trouble with editing. One photo is missing and the font keeps changing. I probably won't manage to fix those things before Tuesday!)

Today I was in Madrid, on my way back from a conference in Andalucia to Finland. Vandriver found me a hotel right around the corner from St George's Anglican Church. Although I had not found time to let anyone know I'd be coming, I recognized a fellow ordinand and he asked on my behalf if I could sit in and observe the Godly Play circle. While he was off asking, I watched a liitle boy supervise the priest's preparations for the service.

The GP team graciously allowed me to join them, even though it was an awkward Sunday. Understandably but disappointingly, their usual Godly Play room had been taken over with preparations for the Christmas Bazaar. Fortunately, they have a second, much smaller room, which they tend to use for older children. It contains a second Holy Family, and materials for enrichment lessons. So we crowded into there. We were at least 15, three adults and a dozen children. [Godly Play strongly advise against having more than two adults in the room, so I tried to minimize the adult-ness of my presence by sitting on the floor (even though I was offered a low chair), and keeping quiet.]

Their Storyteller presented the Holy Family, and then the children worked on a couple of crafts. It was simply too difficult to manage a feast, but they closed by singing and signing "Go now in peace".

Imagine a photo of a crowded room here.

(I admit I did stand up for that second picture, but by then everyone was absorbed in their work.)

There were some potentially frustrating moments. (We all have those!) The story got interrupted several times, and it was hard to maintain an atmosphere of listening with wonder. When Storyteller invited all the children to help put the figures back where they belonged, even though she did this in an orderly fashion, working around the circle, one by one, these figures got knocked over when three boys at once tried to help put Mary away. 

There were also some sweet moments. When the Storyteller introduced Mary, the mother, one child clapped quietly. 

There's a line in the script about many nativity sets being too fragile for children to be allowed to play with, but reassuring children that this one is for their use. The Storyteller said that line towards the end of her telling, shortly before the Wondering. Almost right away, a child asked to hold the Risen Christ figure. 

Thank you very much, St George's!

order - everything in its place

Remember Little Sister, who hunted through my attic for "Jesus things"? It wasn't enough for her to work with them in the attic; she wanted to carry them down to the living room as well. And when I look at the photographs I took, one thing that strikes me is order.

Godly Play is informed greatly by the educational methods of Maria Montessori. Montessori found that children are attracted to orderliness from a very early age, less than a year old in fact. She argued that children are sensitive to order (sensitivity is a technical term here, meaning able and eager to learn) during these early years, perhaps especially in their third year (age 2)). This does not mean that after their third birthday they stop finding order attractive, but rather that already by then they should have learned how to put things away, what belongs where, and how to recognize things that are out of order.

clockwise from left: Noah's ark, the Bethlehem stable, the Table of the Good Shepherd
(laid with a paten, a cruet, and bread), an Anglican rosary, and the Holy Family.

I am struck in this photograph by the way that Little Sister has made a differentiation (which is not emphasized in the Godly Play lessons) between the Christ Child's earthly family and the other characters in the Holy Family set - the shepherd, the magi, and the animals. (LS didn't have to decide where to place the "Risen Christ" figure since mine was in England at the time!) Also striking was the way she added several objects to the Godly Play materials. The terra cotta stable was unearthed while hunting through the attic, and is an obvious addition to a nativity scene.

More surprising additions might be the Anglican rosary (which she came across in our living room), and the Chinese triptych. The latter is a souvenir of the Five Oxen, a Tang dynasty Chinese painting. I don't know why she carefully placed it behind her work. Although the triptych is a common form in Christian art, I doubt that LS knows that yet. Perhaps it's because the ox (or cow) is one of the figures in the Holy Family. Or maybe it's just that this, like Godly Play materials, is a beautiful object of a size suitable for children.

adding a pair of elephants to the Holy Family

The last addition is not clear in any of my photographs, but is a set of two wooden elephants. Elephants are not mentioned in any Biblical accounts of the Christmas story... but then again neither is the donkey or the ox! (Indeed, I have seen one or two nativity sets suggesting one of the magi might just as well have ridden an elephant as a camel.)

In the Godly Play classroom, children are encouraged to bring together materials from more than one lesson, making theological connections between stories and seeing how one might illuminate another. But afterwards, the child is always expected to put things back where we always keep them, to maintain the order which is one of the comfortable and reassuring things about our room.

making do: the focal shelf

Recently I had the opportunity of presenting a Godly Play taster session to some of the children's workers at my English churches. Another local storyteller kindly loaned me materials for several stories so that I could furnish our space, surrounding the circle with lessons as we normally do in a Godly Play classroom. Understandably though, the local storyteller couldn't loan me the "top shelf" focal shelf materials since those were essential to their own classroom.

Most of my own Godly Play materials are in storage back in Finland. I was able to borrow the Circle of the Church Year materials (the "church clock") and Baptism materials (minus the Trinity symbols). So here's how I "made do":

This photo was taken before I had quite finished -
I did put the blocks into the clock correctly before we started!

The focal shelf, as its name suggests, provides a focus for the room. It is the most important shelf, and it locates Christ as having central importance. We have the Holy Family in the middle, which tells both that Jesus came among us at a particular point in history, and also that he is now everywhere, taking the whole world into his embrace. I represented this with my Risen Christ cross and a little Christmas ornament showing Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus.

(Of course the true Holy Family materials also tell of a family made up not just by blood but intentionally, incorporating the lowly (shepherds) and outsiders (the Magi, who were not Jewish). But I had to make do with what I had, and since I was not telling that story this time, I felt that what I had was good enough.)

On each side of the Holy Family we have a reminder of one of the names Christ gave himself, one of the metaphors he used. To the left we have "the Light of the World", the Christ candle. This was relatively easy to provide; we already had a white pillar candle and base at home. Below it are the (borrowed) liturgical materials about the sacrament of baptism, which pick up the theme by talking about us receiving the light of Christ.

To the right we have "the Good Shepherd", and below that the liturgical materials about Holy Communion, when we gather around the table to recall his words ("This is my body...") and to meet him in the bread and wine. I didn't have the World Communion materials, not even the Good Shepherd, but I had a Central American cross depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd. At the beginning of my session I introduced people to the space a little, drawing their attention to different things, and I asked them to imagine Communion materials below the Good Shepherd image.

I used the furniture I found in the space I had; the focal shelf was made of a piano bench! The bench was high enough that I felt I needed to stand the crosses up somehow, so I made use of two brass flower vases that were already in the space. I covered this shelf/bench with a white cloth (a damask cloth napkin) since we were just at the end of Eastertide. (Usually there is a cloth, in the appropriate liturgical color of the season, beneath the Holy Family but not covering the whole shelf.) Below this are the liturgical materials for the Circle of the Church Year.

If you don't have easy and regular access to Berryman's books, the UK Godly Play site has really helpful resources about how to furnish a Godly Play space. (Even if you do have Berryman's books, you might find these resources a useful supplement.) In thinking about what to do for a focal shelf, I drew on my memories of the document, "Designing and building a Godly Play room", which can be found on the same UK Godly Play page. [[Since writing this post, I've also remembered this post about the Focal Shelf on the Three Great Days blog.]]

Just as a point of comparison, the very first focal shelf I ever created had a Christ candle and a tiny Holy Family. I regret, though, that I had no Good Shepherd at all. The shelf was spread with a cloth of the right color, and although I had no church clock I did have the other three liturgically-colored underlays laid out at the base of my shelf. I placed Advent materials on the left, spatially liked with the Christ candle, and Lenten materials on the right. (Endings that are also beginnings, circles and cycles link World Communion with the Circle of the Holy Eucharist, the Faces of Easter, and indeed the Circle of the Church Year. So in a classroom they are typically linked spatially as well.) Our space was tiny. I had so few materials that I didn't surround our circle with the lesson materials, but kept Noah's ark and our one parable box in this same set of shelves.

Is your focal shelf as you would like it to be? In what ways have you been able to "make do"?

my blog's on Facebook

If you'd like to follow me on Facebook, that's now possible. I've set up a Wonderful in an Easter kind of way page. You should be able to have a look even if you are not a member of Facebook yourself; the address is https://www.facebook.com/easterkind. Their software wouldn't recognize the avatar I use here (one of the wooden People of God; it might have been too small a photo) so for now, at least, my profile picture is the Finnish Holy Family set:

my profile picture on Facebook

This is all pretty new to me. I'm not sure whether I'll post every blog post there as well as here... I want to make it easy to keep up with anything happening here on the blog but not to overwhelm you or irritate you by double-posting. Comments and advice are welcome!

And if you like the page, please do click the "like" button there.

"the baby was from God"

de-briefing

On a day like today I miss see-through-faith, who is living in England this year. She used to be my regular Godly Play companion, as close to a "proper" door-person as I've ever had, and we would debrief together for a short time at the end of each session. Usually we'd also meet sometime during the following week and talk things out some more.

I feel that I wasn't as fully present in the story as I ought to have been today. I was telling the story, but not really experiencing the story as I told it.

Today's lesson was "the Great Family", which was too long last year. So this year I warned the circle in advance, and asked if they could cope with a long story. But even so, I suppose I was nervous and distracted. Suddenly I was telling about the birth of Isaac before God had even promised him to Abram! I apologized and gently took Isaac away again (but kept him in view, beside the edge of the desert bag), while I told about Abram and Sarai wanting a baby, and God's promise.

photo from last year (by see-through faith)

Even then, though, I forgot to tell about their names changing! *shakes head* Fortunately, that came up during our talk at the end because today's helper asked about the meanings of Abraham and Sarah. (I didn't find a meaning for Sarah in our classroom Bible, but I did read out that Abram had meant "exalted father" while Abraham meant "father of many".)

So, I'm disappointed with myself. 

Happily, amongst any disappointments of a session I can always find something that has gone well. This week, the children seemed to work very well once they were dismissed to Response Time. One had to overcome great disappointment at not being able to join in with the work of another, but eventually decided to draw, and worked very independently. Another came up with the idea of turning the Advent basket upside-down as a pedestal for the Risen Christ to overlook the whole spread of Advent materials.

A nice reminder that the "success" of a session is less dependent upon the Storyteller than upon our God. 

looking ahead to Advent

The first time I tried leading a complete Godly Play session was for an "away-day" for adults in our church. We used the Godly Play room and materials at a church in one of the suburbs.

But the first time I led a full Godly Play session for children, using my own materials, was the second Sunday of Advent. It was held in my living room, with art materials set out on chairs next to my dining table for the Response Time. I did the same for the third, and then the fourth Sundays of Advent, increasing the circle from two to three children, and it culminated in an all-age celebration of the first Sunday after Christmas... again in my living room, during a snowstorm on Boxing Day.

photo by seethroughfaith

Although I love our current Junior Church setting for its spaciousness and its convenience for parents, I have fond memories of those sessions in my living room. Last spring one child asked, When are we going back to your house? Liturgically, I like the fact that we started Godly Play in Advent, the first season of the Church year. It is my hope that this year again we will have some new children joining us, coming to Junior Church for the first time... in Advent.

Many people come to this blog looking for information on Godly Play materials, and the Advent materials may look daunting to those who do not have access to wood-working tools. They can be bought from Godly Play retailers in the USA, Finland, the UK, and Germany. I bought my wooden pieces ready-cut but unfinished from Johanna Kaarto-Wallin, and stained and painted them in a workshop at the Godly Play European Conference in Finland. However, if you prefer to make your own, an easy and beautiful alternative to wooden cards is to make them from felt (as shown on the Watkins Every Flavor Beans blog).

the display racks are lovely, but a basket is just fine

A quick Google image search will show you the range of variation possible when you make your materials. Some are blue, some blue-ish purple, some pink-ish purple. Some plaques are large and square, some smaller and rectangular. Some have very stylized wreathes, some look more real. But in almost all cases the first plaque has one candle on the wreath, and a pointing hand representing the prophets. The second has two candles, and shows the road to Bethlehem. The third has three candles (sometimes the third candle is pink), and a lamb. The fourth has four candles, and three crowns. The fifth has a white background, and may show a star. These plaques are laid out on a cloth underlay, something pleasant to the touch. It has four squares of purple and one of white, onto which the plaques are placed. The easiest way to do this is to use a long stretch of purple, divide it with strips of gold cord or ribbon, and glue or sew a white square onto the end.

photo by seethroughfaith

only the Storyteller is allowed
to take things from this basket

You will also need candles, ideally in the colors used by your church (the most common alternatives are four red, or three purple and one pink), and you will probably want unobtrusive candle holders for them (I have since purchased a flea-market set of glass saucers for mine). In addition to matches, you will also need a candle-snuffer. The fifth, white, candle will be the Christ candle from your focal shelf.

ready to give a hug

You probably already have a Holy Family for your focal shelf, but if not you will want one for this lesson. You don't need it for week one, though, so there is time to hunt around. Ideally, the figures will include a baby Jesus who can be taken out of his manger and has his arms spread open, Mary, Joseph, a donkey, a cow or ox, three wise men, a shepherd, and two sheep. (And the focal shelf should also hold a picture or figure of the Risen Christ.) However, you can make do with what you have. My terra cotta Christ child has his arms open for a hug but does not come out of his manger, and this has never been a problem at all.

Several times I used a nativity set belonging to my godson, in which the baby was wrapped tightly in swaddling clothes. He was also smiling. In general, we don't like to use figures with smiles, preferring to let children imagine their expressions themselves. However, I felt that for pastoral reasons it was appropriate to use my godson's set, and I just changed the words of the script on those occasions from see how he's holding out his arms to give you a hug to see how he's smiling at you.

the Holy Family, smiling

More important than sticking precisely to the words of the script is to say the words by heart. It is considered good Godly Play practice to keep to the script as well as you can, and Jerome has written some beautiful lines. But don't rely on note cards! Just gaze at your materials and tell the story from your heart. This is your story. This is our story. This is the story of our faith.

At the same time, don't fret if things don't turn out perfectly. This story officially includes no Wondering, just "enjoying the light". However, last year one young child was far more excited about changing the light than quietly enjoying the light. As soon as the candles were lit, it was Snuff them out! Snuff them out! And the children may well want to wonder or talk about the story. Great! Similarly, don't interrupt a child's intent work to make "corrections". Just enjoy the light of Christ.

"wrong" layout

For more about Advent Godly Play, try these links at Living Montessori Now or see what else I've written.

November 2012 update: This post has been included in the Explore and Express "Getting Ready for Advent" link party.

Faces of Easter (Easter Day)

For our congregation, the last Sunday of the month is "family service" - a communion service abridged for children, with a sermon aimed especially at them (or sometimes a craft in place of a sermon). The goal is that the whole congregation (not just young families) should attend. This year, Easter fell on the last Sunday of the month, and the pastor asked if I'd like to present the sermon to keep continuity with what we'd been doing in Junior Church. Another congregant then suggested I should organize the whole service as a Godly Play session. And that's what I did.

ready to begin (with the Lenten purple under the Holy Family)

I was really grateful to our pastor for being so flexible about this. Not least for carrying on with aplomb when one child finally decided he was ready to examine the Holy Family figures... in the middle of the Eucharistic Prayer! Given that I'd placed all our focal shelf materials on the altar, you can see how some priests might have found this unnerving.

at the end of the service (Easter white)

For Finnish Lutherans, just as important as the liturgical color is the number of candles to be placed on the altar. Easter is a six-candle festival, so I needed to negotiate with the vaktmästare [caretaker] to make sure that those candles looked clearly different from the Christ Candle. I think the result was clear: six candles for Easter plus the Christ Candle for Godly Play.

thank you, Pastor, for this photo

Some things didn't work so well. Seethroughfaith warned me near the beginning that I needed to speak up, but as soon as I began to tell the story I forgot. (After all, my focus was on the materials, not on my audience!) Some of the time I was "competing" with a baby who was at that squeal-y stage of exploring its voice, as well as two tots who just could not stay still and quiet. Perhaps I should have asked if I could have a lapel microphone.

And I regret not cutting the summary of the earlier plaques right down to First we heard about how Jesus was born, and a story from when he was a boy, and then about when he was baptized... Since there were a number of children there completely new to this lesson, I gave slightly longer summaries, and walked around the circle showing everyone the plaques (mine are only 4x6 inches / 10x15 cm). But with Vandriver interpreting into Finnish for me, this meant that this already rather long story became twice as long. Too long.

Yet even those whose focus had been lost were startled back to attention when I suddenly cried out that the story shouldn't stay in a line and re-arranged it, and there was good response at the wondering. Then I handed out Easter cards, blank on the inside, and asked everyone to decide what it was important for them to do - draw a picture inside, write a poem, make it a card for someone else or a card for themselves... And folks of all ages really seemed to enjoy that.

thanks, seethroughfaith, for the Response Time photos

glue and baptism

(that's Joseph's head next to his left foot)

This weekend I got out the glue and repaired Joseph's head, and the donkey's as well (turns out the piece that I had assumed had come from the manger was actually the donkey's right ear).

(no dividing strips)

While I was at it, I finally glued dividing strips onto the underlay for the Faces of Easter, and glued the white section onto the end of it. I was down to the wire getting it ready for the first Sunday we used it, and realized that those were among the lowest priorities - what I needed for that first week was just a purple underlay and for the plaques to be ready.

In fact, even then, the plaques had had coats of decoupage but no sealer yet (so they were a little "tacky"), and the final plaque needed re-doing. Now I think all those materials are done.

This afternoon, Vandriver and I attended a baptism service, and some of the children from Junior Church were there as well. I asked the priest to try to make sure that all the children could see, which he did by making sure that the family and godparents were not between the congregation and the font. It was our congregation's first baptism since the baptism lesson I presented in February. I was so excited! And yes, it was very like what I'd presented to the children (which I'd tried to adapt, as recommended in the script, to our typical practice). Afterwards I confirmed with one of the children - Did you see the priest make the sign of the cross over the baby? Did you see the water go on his head? Did you see the baptism candle? I hope I didn't over-do it, but I really was excited. (I'm glad to report that the answer was yes.) I probably spent as much time furtively glancing at the children present in the congregation as I did watching the baptismal candidate and his family!

You may be wondering what the differences are between a Lutheran baptism in Finland and the one described in the Berryman lesson. Well, our Lutheran priests make the sign of the cross over the candidate's forehead and chest before the baptism rather than after, and no oil is used at all.

"E--, remember the day of your baptism"
(my doll)

.

change of venue

I had it written in my diary, I'd been reminded, and I'd reminded myself. Nonetheless I managed to completely forget, until Vandriver drove me up to the door of our building, that we had to use a different room for junior church today.

(I've obscured the faces a little)

I was really flustered by the change, by having forgotten, by feeling that the first thing I needed to do was construct big signs directing people from the entrance we usually use to another (unfamiliar) one, by needing to think very very quickly about how to adapt a completely new room to our needs. I was even more embarrassed because seethroughfaith was not with us today, and I was rushing around in front of a new helper who'd never worked with me before. When I went to set up the sheepfold on the focal shelf I realized that one sheep was missing. I don't know where it is, even now. I told the children we'd be reminded of the story, how the Good Shepherd will realize one is missing and have to go off looking for it. But worse, I don't know quite what I did wrong, but somehow as I opened one small box, everything in it spilled out and fell to the floor, including the Holy Family. A chip broke away from the Christ Child, and the father Joseph's head came clean off!

focal shelf with damage and loss

So those were the major low points. There was also a distinct lack of confidence in singing our new "Amen" song (seethroughfaith is often disparaging about her singing abilities, but today we really felt how much she had supported us last time!), and a fidgety-ness after our feast that grew to the point where I gave up on having a prayer time and instead we all played a few rounds of "pass the slipper". I'm sure there's a proper party game called "Pass the Slipper", but this was just a silliness borne of the fact that two children slipped their slippers off and started goofing around a little, and so I grabbed one and started handing it round our circle. We all began to giggle and sent the slippers around and around. Not exactly a sanitary activity for those of us about to receive communion! Our poor pastor - she had made a real effort to arrive in good time only to find that I greeted her with such relief that she thought I was complaining about her tardiness. No. She was in good time. It was just a rough week for us.

But there were a bunch of good moments, too. Perhaps the most unexpected was at the very end, just as we were preparing for communion and blessings. I lit the Christ candle, repeating the words I always use (from the baptism lesson): Once there was someone who said such wonderful things... and He said, 'I am the Light'. The five-year-old girl leaned in and said to me earnestly, My mummy has a necklace, 'The Light of the World'. 

William Holman Hunt (1854)

I meant to ask her mother about it afterwards - is it a reproduction of this painting, perhaps? But I forgot to ask and so I still do not know. Yet it was an encouragement to hear that connection, especially after all the silliness with slippers!

setting up the room

Before:

 After:

Every time we do Godly Play, I set up the room like this. It is not a chore! I usually find that setting up the room helps me to prepare for the session. And sometimes I have help - one week a child who had arrived early positioned the Holy Family for me. I always have help with putting the furniture away and collecting the materials to be taken home again. 

(For a more detailed description of what is in our room, see the chart in this post and/or explanations of our different "shelves" in this post.)

guest post: flying solo

Written by see-through faith on 13 March

flying solo ....

well not quite as I had a helper over at junior church today, but as the lady who usually leads jr church and who has introduced Godly play there wasn't there I was the leader this week. Her shoes are hard ones to fill, let me tell you, but I - and the kids - had a lot of fun and met with God in great and sometimes unexpected ways!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Godly play, the idea - from my perspective at least- is to make it possible for kids to experience and learn about God in different ways in a setting that is their church - i.e. not the grown ups' place. Ideally you'd have a special room set aside for just that purpose. But we don't live in ideal worlds, and so I love the way Storyteller has gone about creating that special sacred space where it also ok - very ok - to play in the journey to discovering God.

Every Sunday she spends a lot of time hauling stuff in (and out) to prepare the space for junior church. I didn't have time (or energy) to do that - so we ran with a sort of skeleton junior church this week. The boundaries were there as usual and the mats were there and the funny thing was that we started before I knew it because the little kids each found a mat, sat down and waited and suddently it was a go :)

There were two parts that carried most impact for me

Firstly there was the careful changing of the liturgical colours from green to purple (for we are now in Lent). That meant handling the holy family (nativity) figures and explaing simply who each one was. The 'liturgy' we use goes something like this

Here is the Christ child. See how he's holding out his arms to give you a hug. He was born. He grew up. He became a man. And he died on a cross. That's sad. But that's also wonderful in an Easter kind of way. Because now the Risen Christ can extend his arms and hug every one.

The kids really listened attentively to this part -and we looked at the liturgical colours - white (with gold) and red and green - and of course purple. That fitted in well with what they'd done last week which was learn about telling the time in church (i.e. the church year)

Usually they'd then have a lesson. I'm not up to that so I read a story about the miraculous catch of fish with lots of actions and times to reflect. I wonder how they felt. I wonder how many fish they caught. I wonder what Jesus meant by fishers of men. etc.

Then there was the response time.

Again the skeleton set up this week meant they had a choice, but not an awful lot. There was no parable box for example, or the baptism set, and horror of horrors no clay (playdough) or glitter glue. No fuss -simpler choices this week.

This was the second event that impacted me most

The youngest wanted a story - not the fish story again, but the one about the nativity. (a link to what I'd said about the holy family perhaps?) And then she wanted to 'do' the story of the good shepherd herself. She carefully got the things out and set it up and sort of did it herself with me close by. It was fun and lovely ... only then disaster struck. "Where's the bread and wine?" oops! You see I hadn't found those figures when unpacking the boxes (though I found them later) so we improvised (made a loaf out of card and a jug out of shiny paper) and she carefully took the Good shepherd the five sheep and priest at the altar along with all the people. So moving!

We finished with the feast (which I at least once called snack by mistake!) and then I read another story, this time about the good shepherd a different version with 100 sheep but one which put the parable into context. They liked it a lot

As usual we finished with communion and a blessing when the priest (finally) arrived. I couldnt' remember the song we usually sing so we sang thank you for this fine day. And it was a fine day and so blessed!

But I'm very glad storyteller will be back next Sunday, so I can go back to being a participant able to respond to the message in my own way and an adult who is privileged to be present at junior church and whose responsiblities are a) turning up in good time b) toilet /washing hands duties and c) preparing the snack feast (which the parents take turns in providing)!

help, encouragement, and support

[written on 8 March; scheduled for automatic posting on 13 March]

Today, Lord willing, my usual helper, see-through faith, will have taken over as leader. Last week stf was away, and a kind school teacher joined the circle to be the second responsible adult in the room. This week a gentle and godly mother will be the second responsible adult. 

This seems like a good time to thank all these people, as well as Vandriver, our pastor, and the parents of our children, for all their support. 

I especially want to thank stf, who is a never-ending source of encouragement. We debrief together every week, talking through what went well and what didn't, never in a harsh way but just seeking to acknowledge where there is room for improvement. She models appropriate behavior and creative choices during the response time - daring to work with story materials when most of the children choose art work. I notice the children glancing over from time to time, interested to see what stf is up to. 

This week stf plans to tell a brief version of the story of the Holy Family and to change the cloth on the focal shelf from green to purple. Then she will read a Bible storybook to the children, implicitly reminding them of the basket of storybooks in our classroom, available to anyone during Response Time, and introducing them to the Gospel story of the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11).

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 :)