Play Time

My hands began to sweep the sand from one side to the other. I took a deep breath and started the story: ‘The desert is a dangerous place…’ The exile unfolded under my gaze – Jerusalem was destroyed, the people were taken away, God’s people were symbolically cut off from their home by a large metal chain. Yet, God worked through foreign kings to allow his people to return. When I’d finished, I lifted my eyes to take in the others who were with me on the Godly Play course. I realised that I’d forgotten they were there. I had become completely engrossed in the story. My surprise had to take a back seat, though, as my turn at being the storyteller was not yet over. I asked the circle of listeners: ‘I wonder what your favourite part of the story was?’

Godly Play is described as a ‘creative and imaginative approach to Christian nurture’. It is one of several variations of the Montessori tradition of religious education and has been developed in the United States by Dr Jerome Berryman. For the most part, it is a practice that is used with children, but it has become popular in a wide variety of contexts, from young adult groups to those suffering with dementia. At its heart lies a desire to encourage children into larger dimensions of belief and faith, through wondering questions and open-ended response time.

It’s not as widespread in the UK as other ministries such as Messy Church, but those who do use it are enthusiastic about its benefits. Rev Mary Hawes is the national Going for Growth adviser for the Church of England: ‘Godly Play offers a safe space for children to wonder about story and faith without having to come to a ‘right’ conclusion or produce a suitable craft,’ she comments. ‘By creating room for wondering and then time for self-directed response through creative mediums, a sense of slow-time is given to the children.’

Godly Play is also remarkably countercultural. ‘In a world that (even in Sunday groups) seems to rush, require answers and demand products to show for the use of time, Godly Plays offers a sense of ‘kairos’ time, where attending to the inner voice of the Spirit is given priority,’ says Mary. Indeed the whole practice unpacks the idea that being quiet, careful and deliberate can be as playful and satisfying as being noisy and busy. Rather than learning by teaching or following a traditional educational model, Godly Play employs a methodology of discovery, engaging the whole child. Ritual, respect and a sense of the sacred are all employed to create a space where the child can meet with God.

As the children enter the room, they are welcomed one by one and invited to enter the sacred space, then are given time to choose a space in the circle. The children experience the story by listening to and watching it unfold. Discussion revolves around ‘wondering’ questions asked by the storyteller. After the children have explored their thoughts through conversation, they explore their response through art, craft, reading and playing with the story materials in any way that they want. Finally the group has a feast together before the children depart. 

Godly Play divides stories into three categories: Sacred Stories, Parables and Liturgical Lessons. Sacred Stories are mainly made up of the grand narrative of the Old Testament – creation, Noah, Abraham, Moses and the exodus, the exile. They are told with substantial story materials, made of wood, sand and fabric. Parables are told using two dimensional wooden or card figures, reflecting the fact that they are stories Jesus told, rather than events in the history of God’s people. Liturgical Lessons reflect the Church year, taking in the stories of Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, and Pentecost, as well as lessons about the life of the church – communion and baptism etc.

Let’s explore the process in a bit more detail, starting from when the children arrive.

Creating a sacred space

Godly Play seeks to add the ‘sacred’ back into the everyday things, including the space where the children meet together. Children enter the space one by one, having been welcomed to the session by a doorkeeper. They are then greeted by the storyteller (the doorkeeper and the storyteller are the two adults working with the children), who invite them to choose a space in the circle. The whole room is special, with as many Godly Play materials as possible arranged around the room. The storyteller chats with the children as more enter the space, until everyone has gathered. 

Telling the story

Godly Play storytelling is distinctive, almost counter-cultural. Instead of making eye contact, the storyteller looks down at the materials they are using. Instead of multimedia resources, simple storytelling kits of fabric, wood, sand and paper are used. Instead of fast-paced delivery, the stories are told in a slow and deliberate way. All these things might lead people to think that it would never work with their group, that children won’t sit still for that length of time or that they won’t engage with something so different from their day-to-day experience.

Sue North-Coombes is a Godly Play trainer in the south-east of England. She says, ‘Children are drawn in and become absorbed. In my experience, even usually disruptive children fast become engaged, but may still shuffle around a bit! Those who find it difficult (and that’s actually very few) can sit with the doorkeeper and still see the story.’

The stories themselves include repeated phrases, simple statements and clear descriptions to allow children to enter into the narrative. When this is combined with the storyteller playing with the story materials as they tell the story, children’s attentions are drawn right down to the action. The engagement is often surprising to see – I was astonished once to watch a group of 11 year-old boys go from boisterous to completely silent as they engaged with the story of the exodus!

‘Children are being given their own emotional and auditory space, without direction, and it draws them in,’ adds Sue. ‘They can think their own thoughts and imagine their own parts of the story without interference, and again it draws them in.’ 

Wondering together

Godly Play uses the kind of questions that lead to thought and discussion. They are not factual, but rather are about opinion. So for example, in the story of the exodus, you wouldn’t ask factual questions about the story, but questions like, ‘I wonder what the most important part of the story is?’ and, ‘I wonder what we could take away and still have all the story we need?’ Questions like these open up conversation; children will have different opinions and in the course of talking about them will start to shape and develop their theology and thoughts about God. The role of the storyteller is to reflect back what the children say if necessary, not to validate answers by saying they are right or wrong, nor to ask supplementary questions or give information which might lead the conversation in a certain way. The conversation is child-led.

Kathryn Lord is an experienced Godly Play trainer and practitioner. ‘People are sometimes concerned that in Godly Play “wrong answers” go unchallenged,’ she explains. ‘But wondering questions do not have right and wrong answers. The wondering teaches children that their response is necessary, of value and it can help them recognise what God may be saying to them. We hope that wondering will form a lifelong spiritual habit.’

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in his book The Wound of Knowledge, explores the idea that spirituality is not so much an exercise of ‘interrogating the data’ of the Christian story and its traditions, but more importantly, the opportunity for the data to interrogate us. ‘Wondering ensures by its style (when carefully employed) that we are interrogated by the data,’ reflects Kathryn. ‘It asks questions of us, stimulates our authentic response and heightens an awareness of how it challenges us.’

The three ‘types’ of story ask slightly different wondering questions. With Sacred Stories, the wondering questions help children engage with the grand themes, as well as the individual aspects of the story. With Parables, the wondering is more playful, encouraging children to enter into the story and access it in different ways. Liturgical wondering combines elements from Sacred Stories, connecting with experience: ‘I wonder if you have seen/been part of this?’ or ‘I wonder what you might bring to this?’ Sometimes children bring objects to the circle in liturgical wondering, sometimes just their words.

Time for response

Following the time of wondering, children are given the opportunity to respond in whichever way they like. They might play with the story materials, use art and craft materials, read books, play with building blocks or sand, look at pictures or write poems or stories. This is often done alone, but sometimes children might respond together on a joint piece of work.

There is no end point to the response, no pre-determined piece of craft or art that the children are heading towards. The aim is to allow children to process what they have heard and reflected upon. As adults, we all know that God speaks to each of us in different ways and says different things, and so it is with children. Each child’s response will be completely different.

Thanksgiving – the feast!

After the response time comes a space for the whole group to share a simple snack together. Once everyone is served, a prayer of thanksgiving is offered and other prayers may be shared by the children too. The feast is eaten together and is a vital part of Godly Play – like the welcome, it provides a space for community building.

FAITH THAT LASTS

Research done by the Fuller Institute in America reflects on the fact that too often children and young people in churches are brought up on a ‘gospel of sin management’ – where the Bible is reduced to a set of rules that they will inevitably break. Faith becomes dependent on doing the right thing, not on a relationship with God. Godly Play (and other more reflective ways of engaging with the Bible) puts the child at the centre of their own faith development and allows them to meet with God on their own terms, not on terms predetermined by those around them. It allows what the Fuller research calls a ‘gospel of grace’ to develop, borne out of real engagement.

Sue North-Coombes sums it up well: ‘Children are innately spiritual from the moment they are born and, living in the moment as they do, are often more open to the spiritual than most adults, with their crowded lives. We hugely underestimate this in children and their capacity to be still and moved by the sense of the sacred. Nurturing the spirituality of our children is as essential to their wellbeing as nurturing their physical health, and we are in danger of causing them real harm if we fail to understand this.’ The school national curriculum itself states that schools are required to ‘promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society.’ How much more should we, as followers of Christ, invest in the spiritual lives of children?