storybook Sunday

In the sermon slot today, I read a story to the congregation. Do any of you recognize the book? Or can you guess what I might have been reading today?


Tuesday will be the 25th, nine months before Christmas, which makes it Annunciation Day. The Finnish Lutherans celebrate it on the nearest Sunday. It's a six-candle day! I read the story of the Annunciation (and Mary's Visitation to Elizabeth) as told by Madeleine L'Engle in The Glorious Impossible, with illustrations by Giotto. Any fully-equipped Godly Play classroom will have at least some of the illustrations from this book among the materials for The Mystery of Christmas, and some also have a copy of the full book as well.


It was a little clumsier than I expected to try to hold the book so people could see it and read at the same time... especially to swivel back and forth so everyone had the opportunity to see! But it was fun to glance up at the congregation from time to time (something I do not do as a Godly Play storyteller) and see how people were responding. One woman leant over and rested her head on her husband's shoulder as she listened.

*     *     *     *     *

Also today, I was given another storybook by a member of our congregation who is getting ready to move house and having a clear-out. It is called The Splendour Book of Bible Stories reinterpreted by Shirley Goulden. It is interestingly similar to L'Engle's book in being an illustrated retelling of Biblical narrative. In this case, the illustrations are contemporary with the retelling (1970), and not all in the same style, being by four different artists: Nicole Claveloux, Charles-Louis LaSalle, Loup, and Jean-Claude Perrouin. Here is a part of the illustration for the Tower of Babel


What fun! Thank you! 

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