easter 2015

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...

Today's Common Worship collect: Risen Christ,  faithful shepherd of your Father's sheep:  teach us to hear your voice and to follow your command,  that all your people may be gathered into one flock,  to the glory of God the Father.  Amen.   (from " Additional Collects ")  (working with the "Good Shepherd and World Communion" Godly Play materials)

The Eastertide guest post festival continues. This week I've written the guest post, for Sheila's Explore and Express blog, although I "cheated" a little in that I didn't write about an Eastertide subject, but Jesus' pre-crucifixion Triumphal Entry. It fits into what I think of as my "making do" series, about materials. I've met many people who think that Godly Play is all about expensive wooden figures. It's not true . Godly Play is about treating children with dignity and creating holy space. I own a few Godly Play materials that were made by official sourcers, but others that were cobbled together from flea market finds. Some I do plan to replace eventually with something more beautiful. But some of my quirky materials I would never want to replace! My  Jesus the King materials illustrate this well, I think. ... Read the rest by clicking  here .

Sheila was one of my first blogger friends. We both live "abroad" and use Godly Play with children in church. She lives and works in Berlin, and blogs about Godly Play, art education, and encouraging kids to enjoy nature. The Celebrating Lent link party that we co-hosted this winter was largely her idea, and together we've decided to celebrate Eastertide with a series of guest posts.  Her guest post here begins with a reference to the Stations of the Cross. For those who might not know, this is a way of prayerfully remembering the events of Good Friday.  There are 14 stations, including "Jesus is condemned to death", "Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry the cross", and "Jesus is nailed to the cross".  The stations are often depicted visually and separated from one another in space - so you pray with your body as well as your mind as you move from one station to the next, and no reading is required.  Wikipedia lists  two variants of the stat...

My guest this week is Matthew , a Children and Families worker from Derbyshire who is writing about his Godly Play training course. I�ll briefly summarize some highlights of what he�s already said, but here also are links to his part 1 and part 2 . Matthew was introduced to Godly Play when he saw a Sacred Story told within a child�s celebration service. That inspired him to organise a taster session for his Methodist Circuit, which in turn led to him signing up for the next available training course. The Godly Play training courses are three days long. Matthew wrote about being particularly challenged on Day 1 by the Door Person�s question, �Are you ready?� On Day 2 and right into Day 3 he was grappling with the differences between story �genres� in Godly Play. Being used to immersing himself in a Sacred Story and then Wondering afterwards, he was disconcerted to find that Parables have Wondering both at their beginnings and at their ends. Here�s his Part 3: By now I had more question...

This week I'm sharing guest posts by Matthew Loader, a Children and Families Worker from the Peak Methodist Circuit in Derbyshire. Matthew only recently did a three-day training course in Godly Play. Although he'd experienced a "taster day" he was still very new to GP, so I've found it refreshing and even startling to look at Godly Play through his eyes.  If you haven't already read part one, you should start here .   photo taken at Storyteller's training course The two questions I remember I had at the end of the taster session, therefore going into the training were: Was Godly Play an experience intended primarily for working with Children?  Was Godly Play an experience exclusive to a full Godly Play session, or could Godly Play be integrated into other activities, for example after school clubs and Toddler carer groups? About the Godly Play 3 day training course As we were welcomed into the Godly Play room on Day 1 of our training I was challenged by th...

As I, Storyteller, said in my last post, and as Sheila has more eloquently said here , we're going to celebrate Easter together with a series of guest posts for Eastertide. Part of what gave me the idea was that I'd just received a guest post myself. So although this one's not about Eastertide per se, I'm going to use it to kick off our Eastertide guest post series.  I met this week's guest, Matthew, through Twitter. I asked if he'd be willing to write something about his experiences of Godly Play training for my blog. I'm happy to say that he agreed. With his permission I split it up into a sort of mini-series, and I've illustrated it with some photos of my own choosing. Without further ado, here's the beginning of his post.  Background and introduction to Godly Play My name is Matthew Loader, I am a Children and Families worker for the Peak Methodist Circuit in Derbyshire. I have recently completed a 3 day training course in Godly Play. My Godly Pl...

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the Lenten link-up, Celebrating Lent , co-hosted by Sheila from Explore and Express and me. I enjoyed reading about so many ideas for preparing for Easter, with crafts and artwork and nature... using Montessori methods... ( Tired, Need Sleep ) and Waldorf.... ( Frontier Dreams ) taking children to interact with the elderly... ( Explore and Express ) and including children in local community worship: ( Featherglen ) In addition to the variety, I've enjoyed spotting overlaps and similarities. We had photos of Lenten spirals from both  The Diary of a Sower   and  Frontier Dreams ;   of Cenacles from  Thoughts from the Sheepfold   and  My Domestic Monastery . To my post about Lenten displays I might have added the dinner table displays by  Featherglen  and  Watkins Every Flavor Beans . And now, whether we did all that we hoped to in preparing for it or not, another Easter has dawned. As...

Bishop Sebouh Chouldjian washing feet ( photo by Psalm Tours , used by permission) Last year, I found it very moving to  interact with a child at our Maundy Thursday service . Thinking about that this year, it struck me that foot-washing is one of the few sacramental-like rites at church that children might participate in. (Most children in our congregation do not take communion yet, and were baptized long before their earliest memories.) So I really wanted to provide a way for children to participate in our Maundy Thursday service this year. I made arrangements with the priest well ahead of time, and agreed that I'd lead children's activities outside the chapel until the footwashing, and again from the footwashing until communion. The idea I was most pleased with was that it would be the children (and me) who would strip the altar afterwards. photo source Since we wouldn't be in our regular setting, I'd decided to bring only the Faces of Easter and focal shelf material...

I try not to pay too much attention to the stats, especially the numbers, but this was really startling! I'm planning another short post in the Making Do series. It's already half-drafted in my head, and I took a photo for it yesterday, but things are so hectic at work right now that I'm just wiped out at the end of the day. Soon, I hope. Thanks for dropping by (even those of you who chose not to click through some 65+ pages in rapid succession). :)