Conference Day 3 - Reminded of Playfulness

This morning started out with a Godly Play story. We had a choice of seven circles to join, each telling a Parable, but in six different languages. I went to hear the Parable of the Great Pearl told in Spanish.

I know that our storytelling can (and indeed should) be rather playful, but that does not always come naturally to me. It is certainly helpful to see how others do it. I remember in training watching Rebecca Nye as she put materials away, playfully flicking a rolled-up underlay back and forth a bit, unrolling and re-rolling it a bit. It was playful but also emphasised that we should roll those underlays back up as we put them away.

This morning, I watched David Pritchard playfully act out how heavy the merchant's bags of money were, and mop his own brow as he "struggled" to carry all the possessions across to pay for the pearl. 

picture of parable materials spread on the floor: a large white circle, brown outlines representing buildings, some containing single pearls and one filled with many possessions. Also on the white circle is the flat figure of the merchant, with a single pearl placed on his hand.

During our Response Time, therefore, I felt encouraged to be a little playful with the figures on the focal shelf, and brought the shepherd and sheep from the Holy Family across to interact with the Good Shepherd and his sheep:

Flat wooden figures mounted on bases to stand upright: A male figure carrying a lamb on his shoulders, and five sheep enclosed by a wooden toy fence. Also within the fence is a wooden sheep from a nativity set, and next to the "Good Shepherd" is the shepherd from a nativity set.

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