About
About Godly Play
Children have an innate sense of the presence of God. The Godly Play approach helps them to explore their faith through story, to gain religious language and to enhance their spiritual experience though wonder and play. Based on Montessori principles and developed using a spiral curriculum, the Godly Play method serves children through early, middle and late childhood and beyond.
Each Lesson ‘story’ has its own handcrafted set of figures or objects made from wood or fabric. Children are encouraged to handle these with great care. Quality of materials is matched by an attempt to strive for simplicity- figures do not have features to allow children to project their imaginativity of their own feelings and ideas about narrative. Story sets not only cover important biblical narrative but also explore church traditions and liturgical expression.
About Godly Play At St Matthias Church
We have two sessions each month where children come out of the service for up to 40 minutes to have teaching and creative artwork
These sessions are on -
2nd Sunday - during the Family Service at 11am
3rd Sunday - during Grow Zone at 9.30am
We encourage children from 3 to 8 years to join us - but all ages are welcomed!
A Godly Play session adopts the established pattern of Christian worship and includes a time to
- enter a threshold with a personal welcome
- get ready
- tell a story using objects and artefacts
- explore the story with more open questions and discussions
- prayers
- enjoy a simple feast and sharing
- respond to the story with a free choice using a variety of art materials
- saying good-bye to each person
For examples of recent Godly Play sessions, explore our Blog
Godly Play has been led by Lena Fearnley since Christmas 2018. Lena qualified in this teaching that year and is supported by her husband, Giles. Their children, Archie and Georgina, join all the sessions
Additionally, the principle Easter and Christmas services have been enriched by including Godly Play within them. Lena also runs a monthly session with St Matthias' Pre School.
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