Greetings from the Founder of Godly Play

The following greeting was especially written for and delivered to the delegates at the II National Godly Play Conference by the Founder of the method, Jerome Berryman. We are very grateful to Jerome for this generous and evident display of companionship with regards to the ongoing process of developing Godly Play in Spain. The greeting focuses on the theme of the conference, A Safe Space.

Welcome to the second national conference for Godly Play in Spain. It is wonderful to be able to greet you on behalf of Godly Play everywhere, but “wonder” is hard to translate. Let’s pause for just a minute, as we begin, to ask why.

Put your hands on your heart and close your teeth and lips very tight. Then gradually move your hands out as far as your arms will allow and at the same time begin to smile. Slowly, slowly show your teeth, not to snarl or bite, but to laugh. Then, laughing, fold your arms around your neighbor with a hearty hug. The embrace makes a small, circle of safety out of wonder’s expansive opening. This provides the way for the creative process to come out of hiding and begin to play. It is important for our creativity to come out of hiding, for we were created in the image of The Creator. This is why Godly Play is full of wonder.

“Wonder” is difficult to translate, because it is so fundamental to whom we are, especially as Christians. Its meaning is carried more in our bodies and expanding spirits than in our minds, which distance us from God by abstractions, analysis and logic. Wonder is the special gift of children who show us how to be open to the very tiny, such as flowers and pebbles as well as to the very large, such as a sunrise turning the mountains pink or to the metallic, gray light of an angry sky over the ocean. In such pervasive wonder God’s laughing embrace can circle us around to complete us.

Children are drawn to the larger safety of God’s embrace, but it is also strange and scary. This is why they need the smaller safety of the Godly Play circle to try it out and test it, as they learn the language that both helps them identify this experience and gives them the means to express, share, and evaluate such experiences. This is also why they need guides who are not afraid to let go of trivial safety to move with them towards the Kingdom of ultimate safety.

My prayers go with you on this journey.

Jerome Berryman (Founder of Godly Play)

A note for those who might be interested at a later time:

To know God -- beyond, beside, and within -- one needs to be able to be open to what Rudolf Otto called in 1917 “The Holy” (Das Heilige). The Holy is not just full of mystery (numinous)but is at the same time terrifying (tremendum) and fascinating (fascinans). This is why we desperately try at times to control or reduce The Holy to some kind of artificial safety, but God’s safety, a paradox of fresh springs in the desert and the solid rock of Mount Zion goes beyond space and time.

A slightly different version of this same article can be found here