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Please make a note of the dates for the next European Godly Play Conference: from Friday 17 to Monday 20 September 2010. It will take place at the Finnish Lutheran Church Training College, near Helsinki, overlooking a beautiful lake.The Godly Play Finland website has further details about the conference, besides a provisional programme and an invitation from the organisers.The international speakers will include Jerome Berryman, the founder of Godly Play.
On Saturday 14th November, I was in Ogíjares (Granada) leading a Godly Play introductory seminar that included a general presentation of the method and also offered the participants a chance to learn some of the Old Testament sacred stories for themselves. Sixteen teachers from several different churches and schools in Granada came to the seminar: the Mosaic fellowship, Cristo de la Yedra R.C. school, Inmaculada Niña R.C. school, the R.C. parish church of San Miguel Arcángel, the Iglesia Evangélica Española (IEE - Methodist/Presbyterian), the Baptist church... Here is some of the participant feedback following the seminar: - I would like to see Godly Play used in practice with a group of children. It has been very interesting. It would be good to have a workshop set up for the creation of Godly Play materials, maybe coordinated by the future GP Spain association.
- It's a great way to evangelise. I would like to attend more workshops for every aspect of Godly Play: 'door persons', 'storytellers', crafts people, etc.
- I love the similarities between this approach and the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.
- I'm looking forward to practising this at home with my own children.
- It can be easily applied to mixed gender and age groups. The material is very resistant and durable, and re-useable for different lessons.
- A good method to share God's truths and teachings. Right from early childhood, it invites people to see God as very close, as it encourages wondering and personal involvement.
- I think this a a great way to tell children Bible stories.
- I would like to learn how to use this to teach my students and children Catechesis.
The seminar took place on the premises owned by Mosaic, a Christian community which has been practising Godly Play for about 2 years. They have a dedicated classroom in the town of Ogíjares, near Granada, as well as most of the story materials.
Besides Godly Play, Mosaic has also run sessions on Living in a Fragile World, Godly Play style activities on ecological issues, conservation & citizenship. They have done this experimentally in the open air with all-age groups.On Sunday 15th November, the day after the seminar, I took part in an ecumenical activity based on two Godly Play stories (the Parable of the Leaven & the Parable of the Deep Well). Children and adults from several Protestant, Catholic & Moslem communities or families attended this event.More photos HERE
Over the recent long bank holiday weekend (9th to 12th October), the first national Godly Play meeting took place in Madrid for teachers who are already committed to this method in Spain.Fifteen people took part, coming from Barcelona, Galicia, Madrid, Menorca and Tarragona, and representing churches who use Godly Play in English, Spanish and Catalan. Special guest, Ulrike Labuhn joined us from Berlin. Ulrike, a Godly Play trainer in Germany, speaks good Spanish, having lived for a time in Bolivia.The motto for the gathering was Ultreya!, the old pilgrim's cry of encouragement - Onwards!, and this mutual encouragement was really the object of gathering together. 
Our meeting was structured in two main parts: 1) Looking backwards at the lessons learned on the way, regarding Godly Play practice, and 2) Looking forwards to the next stages of the continuing journey, especially as we travel together in terms of establishing common structures aimed at consolidating, extending and supporting Godly Play practice in Spain. As is common in other GP events, the programme was also based on the usual GP cycle: 1) Building the circle ('threshold community') - getting to know one another; 2) Storytelling - telling our own individual and corporate stories, as well as a full GP session; 3) Getting out our work - responding individually and as a group to different proposals, especially those relating to the development of Godly Play in Spain; 4) Feast - times of fellowship between sessions, especially at mealtimes and in the evenings. There were also brief times of collective worship each morning and evening led by different members of the group, as well as a leaving ceremony, in which we symbolically blessed one another and the children we represented, as well as all the children in Spain and beyond whom we also wished to join the Godly Play 'circle'.
Time was made available for the participants to share, often through visual presentations, the development of their own practice of Godly Play in their respective churches and localities, as well as resource materials which they may have made themselves. This gave us better insight into the GP classrooms that are already functioning, or being developed, in Barcelona, Madrid and Tarragona.Our guest, Ulrike Labuhn, also gave us an overview of the growth of GP in Germany, with particular emphasis on the process of translating and adapting stories from volume 6 of The Complete Guide to Godly Play. Ulrike had already told us the German version of the story of Job in a previous session, which was rather different from the 'official' GP version that is found in the manuals. The developments in Germany were very useful to us as we discussed the future of GP in Spain. One of the main differences at present is the high proportion of professionals (teachers, theologians, therapists...) in the German movement, whereas in Spain the majority of GP practitioners are volunteer Sunday school teachers.
One of the doubts the group raised was the difficulty of going ahead with an organized structure for Godly Play Spain when there was a perceived vacuum of knowledge about GP internationally. This was seen to be part of a much wider problem, as there is so little being translated into Spanish about recent research and study in fields such as the theology of childhood / child theology and the spirituality of children, both of which inform the development of Godly Play and methodology in general. So, time was dedicated at the meeting to offering basic background information about these topics, as well as the international structures of GP, which are also presently in a state of renewal and development.It was stated very clearly at the meeting that the most important thing for the practitioners was what takes place at ground level (literally) within the circle of children in a real-life Godly Play session. Everything else (e.g. training, resourcing, publications, associations, etc) were there to support such action. The vision was to help make it possible for children anywhere in Spain to join a Godly Play circle, and that this work be of an increasingly deeper understanding and higher quality. To facilitate such growth, we need to create certain structures. However, we certainly did not wish to create another organization simply for the sake of it!
Apart from the sessions on helping us to work towards a structured organization for Godly Play in Spain, there were also two workshop sessions: 1) Raquel García gave a practical demonstration on her work with adolescents, which uses an adaptation of the Play of Life model of psychodrama, developed by the Argentinian pyschiatrist, Dr Carlos Raimundo; and 2) Dr Raúl García gave a talk on the Therapeutic Power of Narratives, followed by a time of questions and answers.In the final stages of the meeting, the participants reached agreement regarding the next steps to take towards setting up a Godly Play association in Spain. A representative group has been appointed to work on the statutes and aims of such an association, and another to find a place to hold the next meeting in Salou, Tarragona, probably for next autumn. Ulrike and I will work on a plan for accredited training (which was one of the major issues that the group felt was important to address in the short term). It is hoped that the next National GP Meeting will include an accredited training module and also a session in which the new GP Association will be formally created and the first board of directors elected.So, there seems to be plenty of work to get on with in the coming months!
Next October, the first Godly Play national meeting will be held in Madrid. It is aimed at teachers who are already practising Godly Play, a way of helping children engage imaginatively with Bible stories.This gathering is being convened by David Pritchard, children's ministry coordinator of Scripture Union Spain and an accredited trainer of Godly Play. David started introducing this approach into Spain (with initial help from Peter Privett) in 2004, and throughout these last 5 years, churches and other groups throughout most of Spain have been offered introductory Godly Play days or taster sessions, as well as different workshops aimed at helping the participants get started in the method and training them in basic skills.The result of this work is that Godly Play has now taken root in the educational practice of several local churches belonging to a range of denominations and languages (Spanish, Catalan & English speaking). Some churches are now using the method every week in their Sunday schools, whilst others more sporadically. In some places, dedicated Godly Play classrooms have been established. Other people have seen that Godly Play is useful to them in contexts beyond the church doors, and not only in their work with children.As such rich and varied experiences have built up, David Pritchard believes that the time is right to make a stop along the way and to take a breather, so as to ponder and reflect on what has been learned so far and to share that with others. This is the reason behind this first national meeting.
The slogan for the gathering, '¡Ultreya!', means 'Onwards!', 'Press on!' or 'Keep on going!'. This word of encouragement comes from Latin –- ultra (beyond) and eia (an interjection for 'to move') -- and it was used by the Compostelan pilgrims whenever they met along the way to greet one another and to be encouraged to press on towards their destination. So, the purpose of this first national Godly Play meeting is precisely so that the participants can encourage one another mutually to carry on with their use of Godly Play.As the next stage of the journey is considered, there will also be attention paid to the contents, structures and models of partnership and cooperation for the development of Godly Play in Spain over the next few years. One of the people attending the meeting will be Ulrike Labuhn, an accredited Godly Play teacher and trainer from Germany, who will give input regarding the growth and development of the method in that particular European country, so as to offer the gathering an element of comparison. It is hoped that other participants will also take responsibility for different aspects of the programme.So, the meeting will be more of a consultation or discussion forum, rather than a 'conference' or 'training event' per se. It is intended mainly for practitioners of Godly Play in Spain.The sessions will take place in both Spanish and English, and translation will be provided according to the needs of those attending.For more information about the event, the brochure can be downloaded in Spanish or in English.
Please make a note of the dates for the next European Godly Play Conference: from Friday 17 to Monday 20 September 2010. It will take place at the Finnish Lutheran Church Training College, near Helsinki, overlooking a beautiful lake.
On Saturday 14th November, I was in Ogíjares (Granada) leading a Godly Play introductory seminar that included a general presentation of the method and also offered the participants a chance to learn some of the Old Testament sacred stories for themselves. Sixteen teachers from several different churches and schools in Granada came to the seminar: the Mosaic fellowship, Cristo de la Yedra R.C. school, Inmaculada Niña R.C. school, the R.C. parish church of San Miguel Arcángel, the Iglesia Evangélica Española (IEE - Methodist/Presbyterian), the Baptist church... Here is some of the participant feedback following the seminar: 
Over the recent long bank holiday weekend (9th to 12th October), the first national Godly Play meeting took place in Madrid for teachers who are already committed to this method in Spain.
Our meeting was structured in two main parts: 1) Looking backwards at the lessons learned on the way, regarding Godly Play practice, and 2) Looking forwards to the next stages of the continuing journey, especially as we travel together in terms of establishing common structures aimed at consolidating, extending and supporting Godly Play practice in Spain. As is common in other GP events, the programme was also based on the usual GP cycle: 1) Building the circle ('threshold community') - getting to know one another; 2) Storytelling - telling our own individual and corporate stories, as well as a full GP session; 3) Getting out our work - responding individually and as a group to different proposals, especially those relating to the development of Godly Play in Spain; 4) Feast - times of fellowship between sessions, especially at mealtimes and in the evenings. There were also brief times of collective worship each morning and evening led by different members of the group, as well as a leaving ceremony, in which we symbolically blessed one another and the children we represented, as well as all the children in Spain and beyond whom we also wished to join the Godly Play 'circle'.
Time was made available for the participants to share, often through visual presentations, the development of their own practice of Godly Play in their respective churches and localities, as well as resource materials which they may have made themselves. This gave us better insight into the GP classrooms that are already functioning, or being developed, in Barcelona, Madrid and Tarragona.
One of the doubts the group raised was the difficulty of going ahead with an organized structure for Godly Play Spain when there was a perceived vacuum of knowledge about GP internationally. This was seen to be part of a much wider problem, as there is so little being translated into Spanish about recent research and study in fields such as the theology of childhood / child theology and the spirituality of children, both of which inform the development of Godly Play and methodology in general. So, time was dedicated at the meeting to offering basic background information about these topics, as well as the international structures of GP, which are also presently in a state of renewal and development.
Apart from the sessions on helping us to work towards a structured organization for Godly Play in Spain, there were also two workshop sessions: 1) Raquel García gave a practical demonstration on her work with adolescents, which uses an adaptation of the Play of Life model of psychodrama, developed by the Argentinian pyschiatrist, Dr Carlos Raimundo; and 2) Dr Raúl García gave a talk on the Therapeutic Power of Narratives, followed by a time of questions and answers.
Next October, the first Godly Play national meeting will be held in Madrid. It is aimed at teachers who are already practising Godly Play, a way of helping children engage imaginatively with Bible stories.
The slogan for the gathering, '¡Ultreya!', means 'Onwards!', 'Press on!' or 'Keep on going!'. This word of encouragement comes from Latin –- ultra (beyond) and eia (an interjection for 'to move') -- and it was used by the Compostelan pilgrims whenever they met along the way to greet one another and to be encouraged to press on towards their destination. So, the purpose of this first national Godly Play meeting is precisely so that the participants can encourage one another mutually to carry on with their use of Godly Play.
