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| Speaker, Ulrike Labuhn (Photo: Jacqueline Alencar) |
This year, the gathering took place at the Evangelical Church in Castiñeiras, where there are two Godly Play classrooms as well as the space usually dedicated to services.
The main speaker was Ulrike Labuhn, a Godly Play trainer from Germany and a teacher & specialist in early years education. Ulrike spoke on the subject of 'Opening up spaces for young children's curiosity' and challenged us to take the spirituality of under 3s seriously and to use some of the Godly Play stories with them from such a tender age. Basing her main points on her own experience and research with young children in Protestant kindergartens in Potsdam and Berlin, she declared that even (or specially!) tinies are able to wonder philosophically and theologically on existential matters. "The aim of theological reflection with very young children is not to produce a final result", she stated, "but to help them practise an attitude of ongoing seeking after God. The roots of this are in early infancy and accompany us throughout the rest of our lives,"
The day's programme also included a full Godly Play session, lunch together, the AGM for the Godly Play España association and two practical afternoon workshops ('The importance of the Godly Play environment' and 'When children draw near to God'). Aditionally, there were times for worship, music, meditation and discussion.
An important aspect of the members' meeting of the association was to appoint the first Board of Directors for Godly Play España. The elected board members were: David Pritchard (president), Laura Rísquez (secretary), Maribel Flores (treasurer), Celia Paterson (member) y Raquel Souto (member).
More photos HERE
2 comments:
So nice to see Ulrike on your blog! She's wonderful, isn't she?
Yes, Sheila. Ulrike is now an old friend of Godly Play in Spain, having been twice to Madrid and once to Galicia!
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