'wonder' quote from Chesterton

I recently came across a lovely quote, attributed to G.K. Chesterton, saying that we are perishing for lack of wonder. My first thought was that it would be a good quote to share with Godly Players, and my second was that you can't always be sure that these quotes, or their attributions, are accurate. So I did a bit of snuffling around online. Several people quote it, including in published books, but I couldn't find that quote in a work by Chesterton himself... at first. But now I've got it. The wondering is slightly different but the sentiment is the same, and I'm happy to share it in Chesterton's own, actual words:

The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder. 

G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles

on worship and play

High up on the list of things that hinder worship is the idea that there's some particular way to be good at it, that one can be more or less effective... 

(licensed photo)

Worship is simply the Christian word for the joy of existence.

(Giles Fraser, on "Thought for the Day")

paying attention

David Pritchard shared a quote on Facebook last month, illustrating an important difference between "conventional" education and Montessori education.

Conventional education: the child pays attention to the teacher.

Montessori education: the teacher pays attention to the child.

via the Maria Montessori Facebook page

Berlin-Dahlem, Montessori-Kinderheim, Deutsches Bundesarchiv (source)

holding space

Today, two very different Facebook friends have linked to a beautiful blog post by Heather Plett, about how to "hold space" for people. Although the original post is about palliative care and the care of families in that situation, Heather goes on to say that it's a task for all of us (see the quote below).

Heather Plett: What it means to “hold space” for people, plus eight tips on how to do it well: To truly support people ... [we] have to be prepared to step to the side so that they can make their own choices, offer them unconditional love and support, give gentle guidance when it’s needed, and make them feel safe even when they make mistakes. ... It is something that ALL of us can do for each other – for our partners, children, friends, neighbours, and even strangers who strike up conversations as we’re riding the bus to work. 

(licensed photo by Auztrel, used with permission)

It's a beautiful and challenging post. I'd encourage you to read it all, not least because this is what Godly Play doorkeepers and storytellers do for the members of the circle.

songs for CGS and Godly Play

The biggest (or most public) faux pas I have ever made in the Godly Play community came when I mentioned teaching the children a song. Straightaway someone reminded me, "Music in the Godly Play classroom ... needs to come from the children and not be imposed by the adults on them" (Teaching Godly Play, p.89). Godly Play does not use singing "to bond the children, to quiet them, to memorize texts, interpret texts [or] to keep the teacher in control" (p.89).

I have to confess not only that I have taught songs in my Godly Play sessions, but I have probably also used them to quiet children! (A.K.A. "getting ready") Let me give those earlier quotes more context. In the same book, on the next page, Berryman writes, "From 3-6 years many of the Taizé songs can be taught by rote in unison during the feast...". (p.90) 

the Taizé cross (licensed photo by Surfnico)

So teaching music is allowed, at least to young children, and provided it's kept simple. Berryman does have a definite bias against children's songs (or a certain kind of children's song). "Seasoned and mature music ... like Taizé, does not interpret the lessons for the children but gives them a way to move closer to God, as fundamental texts and liturgical phrases are repeated over and over without interpretation." (p.90) Berryman wants children to learn "music ... they can sing all their lives and still in old age be comforted by" (p. 90). 

My Catechesis of the Good Shepherd trainer gave us concrete examples that chime with Berryman's advice. She uses a range of different music (including Taizé chants). One of her hints was to use snippets of songs, especially choruses/refrains, and especially songs used in your adult services. I was reminded of something we sang in our Communion service on Sunday. The chorus begins like this,

"Christ be our light! Shine in our hearts..."

I don't remember if this was one of the examples my CGS trainer used, but it could have been. The first time you sing it with small children, you could use just the first half of the chorus, repeating it like a Taizé chant. Some other time you could introduce the second half. 

Another thing our trainer did was to sing something, meditatively, as we were enjoying the lit candles in the Last Supper presentation. I think may have been a bit of a sung setting of the Eucharistic Prayer, perhaps words like these: O Lord, as we now celebrate the memorial of our redemption, we remember Christ’s Death and his descent to the realm of the dead, we proclaim his Resurrection and his Ascension to your right hand...

singing the dismissal blessing (with actions)

Songs I have used in Godly Play include the dismissal blessing, "Go now in peace. May the love of God surround you...". With the Faces of Easter story, I used the Spiritual, "Amen". [I've written about that here and here.] With older children I'd like to teach, "In God's green pastures feeding" (in the video below). What's important is to find a balance, leaving room for children to sing (and/or create) songs which express their own spirituality, allowing music to emerge as yet another way they can Respond to God.  

Berryman warns against "turning the Godly Play feast time into a music lesson". With a smile, I note that this video aptly illustrates the difference between worship and music lesson:

heard on TV

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

-Albert Einstein

St Luke and the Gospel story

Earlier this month I shared a quote from a sermon by Stanley Hauerwas. That sermon was given on St. Luke's Day (2007). Here's some more of what he said:

The gospel... the story of Jesus, is known only because it has been told and retold through witnesses across time and space. These witnesses, moreover, actually become part of the story such that the teller and the tale become one. Indeed the witnesses become so much a part of the story that the retelling must incorporate an account of their lives if the story is to be truthfully told. We call such people "saints"...

Today we celebrate the feast of a saint called Luke. We do so because Luke, under the guidance of the Spirit, thought Theophilus needed an orderly account so that he might know the truth concerning the things about which he had been instructed. "Orderly account" is Luke's way of saying "story".

Stanley Hauerwas (A Cross-Shattered Church, p.47)

(the story for Candlemas, Luke 2:22-38)

"The gospel is a story"

The gospel is known by one person telling another. One person must tell another because the gospel is a story. There is no truth, there is no summary of the story, that can be separated from the story itself.

Stanley Hauerwas (A Cross-Shattered Church, p.47)

sometimes we need something other than words

Sometimes, words just can't say what we feel. Sometimes we need to speak differently... through art... or silence...

a quote from this video:

"the Church's Colours"

I happened to pick up a little booklet we have, called A Pocket Guide to the Anglican Church, and noticed for the first time the section on liturgical colors. I like the use of the verb "wears" here:

----

The red, green and amber of traffic lights control the flow of traffic because motorists understand what these colours mean. Similarly the green/yellow, brown and blue wires in an electric cable indicate which wire is earth, live and neutral. 

The Church has used colours since the 12th Century to tell the faithful the sort of mood she is in. There are four principal colours, viz violet, white, red and green.

underlays for the Holy Family on the focal shelf

When the Church wears:

Violet she is in a solemn mood. Violet is the colour of penitence and is used particularly for the seasons of Advent (the four weeks before Christmas), and Lent (the forty days before Easter).

White she is in a happy and festive mood.

Red she is commemorating the death of someone who shed his [or her] blood for the Faith. We call these people martyrs. Red is also the colour used on Whitsunday, because it symbolizes the tongues of fire. 

Green she is in a natural mood. Green is the colour of nature and is used during the seasons of Epiphany and Trinity. 

----

from A Pocket Guide to the Anglican Church, p.43

by Ronald H. Lloyd

first published 1980, revised 1988 

I added the words "or her" myself! :)

asking questions of children

Thanks to Godly Play Australia on Facebook, I came across a blog post by Yvonne Morris, asking:

...in our Sunday schools why do adults most often ask questions about facts and figures and places and information? Are there better questions to ask that will give us and our children that wide-eyed wonder when they connect their story with God’s story...?

She offers some examples of questions we might ask, admitting a strong Godly Play influence on her choices! And then she tells a lovely story. It begins like this,

Can I join you?” I asked the boy quite prepared for him to say ‘No’ but he nodded, so I sprawled near him on the blue blanket. He looked at the toy boat for a few moments. “I wonder what story this is” I say. “Mmmmm, I fink it’s the one where Jesus is asleep in the boat” he replied...

Click here to read the rest.

‘the things of God for the children of God’

The narrator tells his story with respect for the simple but beautiful artefacts he is using. There is not an old yoghurt pot or the inside of a lavatory paper roll in sight. The materials are handled as if they are sacramental. These are ‘the things of God for the children of God’. 

At no point in the story does the storyteller look at the children. This is important. The focus is not on the teller but on the tale in which all in the charmed circle are imaginatively engaged. The storyteller’s voice is slow and soothing, almost mesmeric. His every move is studied.

(from PLAYING IN THE CITY OF GOD, an article by Dr John Pridmore, Rector of Hackney, in AYCE Journal, October 2001)

a flock

He calls his own sheep by name

from John 10:3

Thanks to Pinterest, this morning I came across a blog post written back in 2010 by the Jealous Curator. It's about an art craft by Christien Meindertsma, which speaks to the individuality of sheep.

She created a rug out of large, knitted hexagons. Each hexagon was made from the wool of one, single sheep, and using all the wool from one shearing.

   © designboom 1999-2012, some rights reserved

To emphasise the individuality of each sheep, Meindertsma knitted each hexagon using a different stitch. She's done other projects in the same vein, knitting a sweater from the wool of a single sheep, for example. But this rug didn't just represent each individual. Since she also then put all the hexagons together into a rug it represented the whole flock as well. In fact, that's her name for this project - "flock".

I wonder what the work of your church looks like to Jesus, with each member's output individually recognisable and also connected with the whole.

sacrificing everything

Ian Ruhter, a former pro-snowboarder, spent all his savings to create the world's largest camera and set off on a road trip across America. Using a collodion wet-plate process which costs him $500 a shot, he photographs landscapes, cityscapes, and the people he meets along the way. Delightfully, he is equally respectful of the homeless man with a drinking problem as he is with the seven-year-old "miracle" girl who survived a very premature birth.

This film draws a deliberate and unsettling parallel between Ruhter's total commitment to his project and a drug addict's single-mindedness.

SILVER & LIGHT from Ian Ruhter : Alchemist on Vimeo.

As soon as I this question from Ruhter in this video, I knew I wanted to post it here:

If you had been searching your whole life for something you love, what would you be willing to sacrifice?

You'll surely guess what my immediate association with that question was!

When he found the great pearl...
he went...
and exchanged...
everything for the great pearl.

Rebecca Ramsey gave her kind permission for me to reproduce this photo,
taken from her blog, The Wonder Circle.

I wonder... What, if anything, might you be willing to sacrifice everything for?

"Look for the helpers"

Thank you, Sheila, for linking to Carolyn's post, "What do we say to the children when kids are killed with their teachers at school?"

Carolyn's advice reminds me of Mr Rogers' advice, or rather, the advice he got from his mother.

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

That's good advice for all of us, whatever our age. I sometimes daydream about the news media deciding not to grant fame to killers (which would also prevent them from mistakenly giving out the wrong name). I can choose to focus on and share news of heroes, of helpers, of the good that stands up against evil. May I urge you, too, to seek out any of the several recent articles highlighting some of the heroes of Sandy Hook, Newtown - such as this one from The Independent.

photo by Pokrajac

experience it for yourself

Here's an invitation I came across recently:

This week we will be experiencing something called Godly Play. I can't really explain it to you, other than it involves a parable. The only way you'll know what I mean is if you come and experience it for yourself.  

[source]

Some friends and I offered a Godly Play session as evening worship during our summer school last August. I was amazed at how many students came up to us afterwards saying things like,
I liked it so much more than I thought I would.
or I hadn't expected it to be like that.
or Now I understand! 

So many people "know" that they don't like trendy worship and so "know" that they won't like Godly Play.* Or they "know" that it's only for children,* and only for Episcopalians.* Maybe they "know" that Godly Play is about making children sit down and shut up.* Or that discipline is "outsourced" to the door person.* Or that Godly Play storytellers don't make eye contact with children: Preposterous!*

Whatever your preconceptions about Godly Play, may I invite you to seek out a taster course and experience it for yourself? If you've had one bad experience with Godly Play, might I beg you to give it a second chance? It's not the only curriculum out there and it's not the only approach that works. But there's a quiet beauty in the way it allows you to "play" in the presence of (and even with) God. I'd love for you to experience that.

One man from summer school said, If you'd told me I would happily sit during worship and play with modelling wax... I'd have said you were mad. 

*endnotes:

• Most adults experience Godly Play as gently thought-provoking. Nobody is ever asked to do anything they don't want to do, not even answer questions.
• Godly Play has been used with people of many ages. The invitation quoted above was for teenagers.
• Godly Play is used within many Christian denominations and by people outside traditional denominations as well. It is Biblical and liturgical. Storytellers are encouraged to adapt the liturgical lessons to fit the practices of their own churches (for example, when and how people are baptised).
• In Godly Play, children are given a lot of freedom of choice... within clear constraints and boundaries. GP follows some of the educational principles of Maria Montessori, as well as Sofia Cavalletti's use of these principles in the spiritual education of children. 
• There is a division of labour in Godly Play, but it's about achieving the smoothest possible supervision of the classroom. The storyteller and door person work together as a team.
• Here's a post I wrote about eye contact. 

distraction

This moment was part of what I've been hoping for:

distracted by "adult" worship

This child spent the first part of our service today working with materials about the story of Jonah (a story she knows not from Godly Play but from a Bible storybook at home). However, as I snapped this photo, her attention was drawn away from her own work to the worship service taking place in the same chapel. Last week a mother said to me that she noticed her son singing along with one of the congregational responses as he sat drawing a picture.

As Carolynn wrotes,

The children playing during the worship does not mean they are not also engaging with what they are seeing and hearing. 

welcoming young families

Recently, David Pritchard pointed his Facebook friends to a short article which began like this:

Imagine a place where God's call to see children valued and cared for goes unheard. Imagine that in this place children are ignored, excluded and treated as insignificant. Now imagine that place is a church. 

Viva News, 11

(The Viva News link above will take you to a pdf of the whole magazine. This article is found on pages 4-5.)  

This week I've posted some ideas for welcoming children at church. Here's an example of another very simple and practical way to show young families that they're welcome:

This is accessible to both men and women.

The photos above and below were taken at a local church building, where they've provided a changing-table and even diapers / nappies. [I spotted a similar set-up at Ikea, where they had a whole range of sizes available.] The hand-lettered sign in the close-up below welcomes you to use the nappies / diapers.

(The sign welcomes you to take one. )

prayer to the Faithful Shepherd

Today's Common Worship collect:

Risen Christ, 

faithful shepherd of your Father's sheep: 

teach us to hear your voice and to follow your command, 

that all your people may be gathered into one flock, 

to the glory of God the Father. 

Amen. 

(from "Additional Collects") 

(working with the "Good Shepherd and World Communion" Godly Play materials)

relational not propositional

"Jesus calls Levi" (William Hole, public domain)

The incarnation implies that the 'communication of Christian truth is relational and not propositional'. 

David Lyall, The integrity of pastoral care, 2001, p.96, cited by Ballard & Holmes, The Bible in pastoral practice, 2006, p.207.