the materials aren't the key

We know that not every parish can allocate generous funds for Christian education. We believe Godly Play is worth beginning with the simplest of resources. Without any materials at all, two teachers can make a Godly Play space that greets the children, shares a feast and blesses them goodbye each week. When Jerome Berryman began his teaching, he used shelving made from boards and cinder blocks, and only one presentation material: figures for the parable of the Good Shepherd, cut from construction paper and placed in a shoe box he had spray-painted gold.


The Complete Guide to Godly Play by Jerome W. Berryman

(you might also like to read this post)

one of the more famous Montessori quotes

Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed.
(Maria Montessori)

public domain image

on affirmation

It is the responsibility of every adult - parent, teacher, preacher, and professional - to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone.

-Marian Wright Edelman
(emphasis added by Storyteller)

(If I have understood right, she has said this at least twice. Once it was every Black adult and every Black child, and once it was generalized to every adult and every child.)

a theme song for Godly Play?

Hey soul! Is there anybody home?
Hey soul! Can you come out and play?

It's such a fine day. The Lord's come to stay.
He's just come to play, and he's singing his song.

These are lyrics from an album my parents owned when I was little. It has taken me a long time to track it down, for two reasons. The first is that I had remembered it as having been recorded by The Fisherfolk. In fact, it had been recorded by The Keyhole (the group which "morphed into The Fisherfolk" only later).

The other problem is that I had no idea what the name of the album was, although I could vividly remember the photo on the album cover. The two little kids on the cover were the spitting image of my brother, "Tommy," and his friend, "Tammy." (The names have been changed to protect the innocent.) So my family never called the album Sweet Jesus. We called it The Tommy and Tammy record.

Well, I've finally tracked it down. You can hear a thirty-second clip of the song, "Hey Soul", or even buy the MP3, here. It captures something of how I felt about Godly Play when I first encountered it (as an adult).

Hey soul, wake up! It's time to come out and play!

on concentration

The first essential for the child's development is concentration. It lays the whole basis for his character and social behaviour.


The child who concentrates is immensely happy.


Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, pp. 221, 273

an ending which was also a beginning

With Pentecost, we reached the end of our Spring Godly Play experiment (which began in February, after a trial run for Advent). I'm happy to report that as far as I can tell nobody wanted it to end!

And it's fun for me to see how acclimated everyone has become. The children spotted new story materials immediately...

... and our pastor had taken on board how keenly the children were following changes of liturgical colors, and so showed off her red stole for them.

See-through faith organized a party/picnic last week, which she reports on in her blog entry, feasting Godly Play style. And I look forward to hearing about what parents and children (and other church members?) do in the coming holiday weeks.