The Complete Guide to Godly Play

Revised and Expanded: Volume 3

Jerome W. Berryman, Cheryl V. Minor, Rosemary Beales, Cheryl V. Minor

• Publisher: Church Publishing
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780898690835
• eBook ISBN: 9780898690859
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Godly Play® is an imaginative approach to working with children, based on Montessori principles. The Godly Play® approach helps children explore their faith through story, to gain religious language, and to enhance their spiritual experience through wonder and play. Based on Montessori principles and developed using a spiral curriculum, the Godly Play® method services children through early, middle, and late childhood and beyond. Revised and expanded, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 3 offers new concepts, new terminology, new illustrations, and a new structure that stem from more than ten years of using Godly Play® with children across the world. 30 to 40 percent of the text is new or revised, including two new lessons, two radically changed lessons, a revised Introduction, and a new full Appendix.

Lesson 1

Advent I

The Prophets

How to Use This Lesson

•Core Presentation

•Liturgical Action Lesson: Lessons about sacraments or traditions of the church, which primarily use ritual and symbol to make meaning

•As the first lesson in Volume 3 of The Complete Guide to Godly Play, it is usually presented at the beginning of Advent.

•It is part of a comprehensive approach to Christian formation that consists of eight volumes. Together the lessons form a spiral curriculum that enables children to move into adolescence with an inner working knowledge of the classical Christian language system to sustain them all their lives.

The Material

•Location: Focal Shelf Unit and Advent/Christmas Shelf Unit

•Pieces: Advent cards on a stand or tray; four Advent candles, matches in a metal container, a glass votive cup to hold matches after they have been lit, and a candle snuffer, all on a tray; model of Bethlehem. Optional: candle holders

•Underlay: A strip of felt consisting of four purple (or blue) segments and one white segment. The underlay is rolled with the white on the inside.

Background

This lesson, together with the next three lessons, helps the children to get ready to come close to the Mystery of Christmas.

Churches often have customs that preclude doing a single lesson about Advent on each of the Sundays of the season. For example, the whole congregation might use the first Sunday to make Advent wreaths together or use the fourth Sunday to hold a Christmas party for the children. In such situations, group the lessons as seems best to you, presenting two or even three Advent cards on one Sunday. Remember to start the first Advent session together by telling the story of the Holy Family (Volume 2, Lesson 4, pp. 55−62), in order to change the liturgical color from green to purple (or blue).

Notes on the Material

Find the materials for this presentation on the Advent/Christmas Shelf Unit and the Focal Shelf Unit. The Advent/Christmas Shelf Unit is to the left of the Focal Shelf Unit. The model of Bethlehem stands to the far left on the top shelf of the Advent/Christmas Shelf Unit. In the middle of the top shelf you’ll find the tray or stand that holds the Advent cards. The candles, the container of matches, and candle snuffer are on a tray at the left end of the second shelf (below the model of Bethlehem).

A special stand for the Advent cards makes them visible to a child scanning the room. This stand for the cards should also hold the rolled-up underlay. Alternatively, you can put the rolled-up underlay and cards on a tray. You may want to line the tray with purple or blue felt.

There are five cards or wooden plaques, which represent, in this order:

•the Prophets

•the Holy Family

•the shepherds

•the Magi

•the birth of Jesus

These cards or plaques are laid on a strip of felt divided into five equal sections, one section for each of the four weeks of Advent, plus an additional section for the Feast of Christmas. The first four sections are purple or blue (for Advent); the fifth and final section is white (for Christmas). Roll up the underlay so that the white segment is hidden inside. (An illustration of the underlay, with all five cards or plaques and candles laid out in order, appears in Volume 3 Lesson 4.)

Many churches use blue for their Advent color. In this presentation, we refer to the liturgical color purple, but use whatever color your church uses. Instead of referring to the royal color (purple), point out that blue is a good color for getting ready, because it is the color associated with Mary, Jesus’ mother. Without the mother Mary, there would be no baby.

In this presentation, we refer to one rose and three purple candles, but, again, follow the custom of your church. Use candles with wide bases for stability (e.g., votive or pillar candles). You also need a beautiful metal container for matches. Keep these items on a tray lined with purple or blue felt. It is important to have a small glass votive candle holder as a safe place to put matches that have been lit.

You will use the Nativity figures (Mary, Joseph, a donkey, a cow, a shepherd, some sheep, and three Kings) for this series of lessons. These figures are placed on the Focal Shelf Unit in the center of the top shelf and used when you present the story called, “The Holy Family” found in Volume 2, Lesson 4, page 55. Ideally they are simple wooden figures, safe for children to handle. The Nativity figures are not placed in a stable, as you often see at Christmas time.

Finally, you need a model of Bethlehem, similar to that pictured here. It is to be set in the middle of the circle of children to show that we are all on the way to Bethlehem, including the storyteller.

Special Notes

Working with fire during the work period is problematic. It means something different for different ages or for different children. Some children need more supervision than others. Sometimes children are more attracted to the fire than to the meaning of this lesson, so they need a lot of support and supervision to get past that. The attraction, however is still a point of entry into the lesson, so don’t worry too much about why they are interested. Only be aware that these are the very children who need the most supervision. One pragmatic way to address these issues is by making a rule for everyone that the storyteller always lights the candles or that candles cannot be lit during work-time.

Movements	Words
When the children are ready, go to the Advent/Christmas Shelf Unit.
	Watch carefully where I go so you will always know where to find this lesson.
Bring the cards and underlay (on the stand or tray) to the circle and place them beside where you will be sitting. Then, in a separate trip, bring the tray holding the candles and container of matches and candle snuffer; again set this beside where you will sit. Finally, in a third trip, bring the model of Bethlehem and set it in the middle of the circle. On each trip, walk carefully and handle the materials with respect. Be seated and wait until everyone is ready, then begin.
Start to roll out the underlay as you introduce the color of Advent as the season for getting ready. Only unroll as much underlay as is needed to hold the first Advent card.
Move your hand over the purple.
	Everything is changed. Now is the time of the color purple.
	Purple is a strong color; it’s serious, because something serious is going to happen. At one time, purple was only worn by kings and queens. Long ago, Roman citizens could wear a little stripe of purple, but that was all. This purple is because a King is coming, but he is not the kind of king that people thought was coming. This King had no army, no palace, and no gold. This King was a baby who was born in a barn.
	The King who was coming is still coming. This is full of mystery. You know, a mystery is sometimes very hard to enter. That is why this time of Advent is so important. It helps us get ready to enter the Mystery of Christmas.
	Sometimes, people walk right through a mystery and do not even know it is there. This time of year you will see people hurrying in the malls buying things and doing this and that, but they miss the Mystery of Christmas. They don’t know how to get ready to enter a mystery, or maybe they forgot.
	The Church learned a long time ago that people need a way to get ready to enter or even come close to a mystery like Christmas. The Church set aside four weeks to get ready. Christmas is such a great Mystery that it takes that long to get ready.
Point to the model of Bethl...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Lesson 1: Advent I
• Lesson 2: Advent II
• Lesson 3: Advent III
• Lesson 4: Advent IV
• Lesson 5: A Children’s Liturgy for Christmas Eve
• Lesson 6: The Mystery of Christmas
• Lesson 7: Epiphany
• Lesson 8: Holy Baptism
• Lesson 9: Parable of the Good Shepherd
• Lesson 10: Parable of the Good Samaritan
• Lesson 11: Parable of the Great Pearl
• Lesson 12: Parable of the Sower
• Lesson 13: Parable of the Leaven
• Lesson 14: Parable of the Mustard Seed
• Lesson 15: Side-by-Side Parables
• Lesson 16: Parable of Parables
• Lesson 17: Parable of the Deep Well
• Lesson 18: Parable Synthesis I
• Lesson 19: Parable Synthesis II
• Lesson 20: Making Silence
• Appendix A: The Foundational Literature for Godly Play
• Appendix B: The Spiral Curriculum for Godly Play