Engaging in Godly Play

September 11 and 18, 9:00-10:30

This is a two-session workshop about the practice of Godly Play and the ways it nurtures the innate spirituality of children. Our journey as Godly Play mentors is ongoing and this course is a way to continue our journey as we prepare for the formation year ahead. We will experience and debrief a Godly Play session, discuss the roles of the storyteller and doorperson, and delve deeper into specific areas of interest for our individual practices. Please take time before each session to complete the approximately one hour of prework, which will be posted each week on Wednesday. Use the tips for getting ready to help prepare yourself for our time together.

We will continue to add to this page throughout the course.

Course Guides

Tracy Methe, Missioner for Baptismal Living and Godly Play practitioner for 15 years. This October Tracy is also completing training to become a certified Godly Play trainer. Contact Tracy at Tracy@EpiscopalColorado.org.

Tina Clark, Director of Christian Formation for St. John’s Cathedral. Tina has 18 years of experience teaching and supporting Godly Play. Reach Tina at Tina@SJCathedral.org.

If you have questions or need assistance in accessing the resources on this webpage, please contact Tracy,  720.677.9016.

Getting Ready

Here are some tips to help you get ready to participate fully in the course:

  • Allow yourself time and space to commit to both sessions and the course prework.
  • Find a comfortable and if possible distraction-free location to participate in the two Zoom sessions. Consider adding a candle and/or sacred object that will help you transition to our time together and remain centered.
  • Consider this one step on your ongoing journey as a Godly Play practitioner. There is always more to discover.
  • Be open to new ways of thinking.

Course Flow

Allow approximately one hour to complete the following prework.

Reflect on the following:

Find a quiet place to sit or take a short walk, and reflect for 10-15 minutes on the following questions: What you were doing as a child when you lost track of time? What was the space like? Were you alone or with others? How did it make you feel? Be prepared to share a word or phrase that describes your experience to the circle when we gather on Saturday.

Review:

Take some time to review the Godly Play Teacher Roles document. Which roles do you feel most comfortable performing? Which might you need to practice more? Which do you have questions about?

Watch (optional):

Visit the Godly Play YouTube channel and watch a Godly Play lesson you are curious about. Perhaps it is one you hope to present this year.

Pray:

Pray for the children, both those known and yet unknown, whom you will welcome into your Godly Play classroom.

Please take some time to gather the following items and bring them to our session on September 11:

  • An object that symbolizes for you a place you feel especially close to God, a place where you remember especially the gifts of creation
  • Response time materials–a bit of clay, colored pencils and paper, a pencil and journal
  • Candle and means for lighting it
  • Small glass of water and small feast item

Here is the link for joining session 1 on September 11, 9:00-10:30 am: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81927083185

Agenda

9:00    Arrival and crossing the threshold

9:05     Introductions by mutual invitation, A poem

9:15     Why are we here?

9:20     Where did we come from?

9:30     Lesson, work time, feast

10:00  Debrief

10:25   Next steps, saying goodbye and crossing the threshold

The Layout of the Godly Play Classroom

  • Option 1: Visit your Godly Play classroom. Allow at least 20 minutes. Take a moment to stand or sit in the threshold and observe the room as a whole before making a tour of the various shelves. What do you notice? What makes you curious? What do feel drawn to? What questions might you have? You may wish to take pictures or make notes to remind yourself of your experience. Bring your thoughts and questions to session 2.
  • Option 2: Take some time to study the pictures below of a Godly Play classroom here in our diocese. Locate the focal shelves. What kind of lessons are found there? Locate the Old Testament and the New Testament shelves. What do you notice? Now locate the parable shelves. Take a moment to wonder why these are separate from the other lessons. Now find the saints lessons. How many lessons are there? Finally, locate the art shelves and cleaning materials. What about them helps children be able to select and gather materials themselves? Bring your thoughts and questions to session 2.

The Spirituality of Children

Spend 15 or so minutes reading and reflecting on the brief article Children’s Spirituality. What has been your definition of “spirituality”? Does it align with the Elaine McCreery’s definition that spirituality is “an awareness that there is something other, something greater than the course of everyday events” or the idea that it is “relational consciousness,” an awareness of one’s relationships with self, others, the world, and God? Why might it be essential to nurture the spirituality of children?

Take a look at Rebecca Nye’s SPIRIT acronym. How does the Godly Play method and classroom provide these “ingredients” for spiritual development?

Giving a Lesson (Telling a Story)

  • Optional: If you are a storyteller, check out a story and related Godly Play manual from your church. (You may need to contact the church office to see how this can be done.) Learn the story by heart and tell it to a family member or friend. If you would like, make a video of yourself telling the story. Upload the video to Google Drive and share it with Tracy (Tracy@EpiscopalColorado.org) and Tina (Tina@SJCathedral.org) for feedback.

Here is the link for joining session 1 on September 18, 9:00-10:30 am: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81927083185

Agenda

9:00    Arrival and crossing the threshold

9:05     Welcome, opening prayer

9:10     First-session debrief wrap-up

9:15     Storyteller/Doorperson small groups

9:35     Experiencing an extension story: The Story of Moses

9:50     The Godly Play classroom and the unspoken lesson

10:05    The spiral curriculum

10:15     Topics of interest

10:25     Next steps, closing prayer

Resources

As you are memorizing and practicing to tell a story, it can sometimes be helpful to watch another person give the presentation. The Godly Play YouTube channel has a number of presentations, most told by Godly Play certified trainers. Go to YouTube channel now >

Here are some resources for nurturing faith at home:

Stories of God at Home – A Godly Play Approach: Nourishes faith at home and supports children’s spiritual growth through practice of “storying.” The approach weaves together stories of God and stories of our own families. The book includes a list of recommended stories from classical children’s literature about stories of God and also contains a chapter about supporting children through difficult times. Purchase book on Amazon >

Godly Play Parent Pages: Summarize and provide wondering question for further exploring Godly Play lessons at home.

A Morning Offering

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

~ John O’Donohue

Start Close In

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.
Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.
To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice
becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.
Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.
Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.
~ David Whyte, River Flow: New & Selected Poems

The Godly Play foundation’s mission is “making meaning through story, wonder, and play, and nurturing spiritual lives by honoring the centrality, competency, and capacity of children. On the foundation’s website you will find a links to the upcoming training schedule and to Godly Play Resources, which provides lesson materials for the almost 100 lessons in the Godly Play curriculum. Visit Foundation website now >

Teaching Godly Play – How to Mentor the Spiritual Development of Children, Jerome W. Berryman >

The Spirituality of the Child – What It Is and Why It Matters, Rebecca Nye >

The Complete Guide to Teaching Godly Play (8 volumes), Jerome W. Berryman* >

*Lessons are contained in Volumes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8. Volumes 2, 3, 4, and 6 have been revised and expanded in recent years.

Resources will be added here throughout the duration of the training.