Who's left holding the baby?

It was about a year ago that Sheila commented to say she enjoyed hearing about local church customs which "outsiders" might not know about or even necessarily notice - like the significance in Finland of the number of candles on the altar.

Today, seeing Emily's beautiful photograph of her son being baptized in the Cathedral of St. Andrew, reminded me of another Finnish practice. Here it is not the priest, nor a parent, but one of the godparents who holds the baby.

Anglican and Lutheran priests alike accept this practice here. I've mentioned some features which distinguish our Lutheran priests' baptismal practices from the Anglican ones in another post.

The photograph below was taken the first time any of the children chose to work with our baptism materials, only a few weeks ago. An older girl chose to work with them alone first, but she finished before our Response Time was over and so this other girl was also able to use them. I didn't intend the photo to be quite so blurry, but it does a good job of obscuring her face!

an addition to the library

I've never gotten around to writing about our "library" (which is a mere book basket). But this weekend it had a new acquisition... from the Free (second-hand) Books table at my residential weekend training course!

It's a small, colorful book called Share this feast: reflecting on Holy Communion. It's less than 50 pages long, and perfect for dipping into.

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The book was published by the Methodist Church, but emphasizes the shared ground between all the Churches that celebrate Holy Communion. It's suitable for a wide age-range, and is an excellent jumping off point for anyone to meditate upon Communion (The meaning of Communion for you will build up in layers over the course of your life as a disciple, p. 3) or to encourage discussion.

The themes of the openings include "pour out your Spirit", "the sacrament of care", and "confession" as well as more obvious ones like "do this in remembrance of me" and "a foretaste of the heavenly banquet". Each theme is dealt with in a single opening. All openings include colorful art or photographs and brief captions (song lyrics, Bible verses, or prayers) as well as 2-3 paragraphs of text.

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I'll admit, the children almost never look at the books in the book basket. But each time we've have an all-age event in the classroom, there's been at least one adult who just wanted to read quietly during their Response Time. 

Do you have books in your classroom?

Remarks about scribbles

Sheila has just posted links to two very interesting guides to children's art development. While I see my own role exclusively as a Godly Play storyteller and facilitator (NOT as an art teacher), I nonetheless found several points of interest there.

Here's great advice along the lines of the kind of feedback we try to give in Godly Play anyway:

As the [under-3-year-old] child starts naming his or her scribbles, listen to the child’s comments and use the meanings offered by the child as a source for dialogue. ...If the child says, “I’m running,” ask questions like “Do you like to run on the playground?” or “Where are you running?” Encouraging the child to verbalize his or her thoughts, feelings and experiences independently shows the child that you value what he or she has done. This sort of thoughtful praise will help children to be enthusiastic and imaginative in their future art encounters. (Craig Roland)

And this is a reassurance for those who might be disappointed not to be giving pre-set crafts to our preschoolers:

At four or five, the child begins to tell stories or work out problems with her drawings, changing basic forms as needed to express meaning. Often once the problem is expressed, the child feels better able to cope with it. (Susan K. Donley, citing Betty Edwards)

For these quotes in context, and much more, click through to Explore and Express: Art & Child Development: Two Great Resources.

"She rode and she walked"

Before we leave Christmastide for Epiphany, I wanted to post a few photos from our Response Time after the Christmas lesson. They're blurry, but I love so much what they captured that I wanted to share them anyway.

It is hard to ride on a donkey when you are about to have a baby. When she couldn't ride another step, Mary got down and walked.

 

She rode and she walked (Jerome W. Berryman, "Advent II")  

It was only after I'd snapped these pics of Mary riding and walking and riding and walking that "seethroughfaith" pointed out to me that all the figures had been turned to face Bethlehem. The shepherd is even leading the sheep!

Let's go with the prophets, the Holy Family, the shepherds, the angels, the Magi and all the rest to make the journey (Jerome W. Berryman, "Advent I")