Together at Eleven
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The service is fun-filled with lively songs and hands-on activities. We listen to a famous Bible story with the whole family learning together. We also keep things punchy so that the service is less than 40 minutes long, and is followed by crafts and refreshments, with time for the children to play while the parents chat over coffee. During the craft activities the children have made Sarai & Abram finger puppets, a serpent from the Garden of Eden, a creation bookmark, a rainbow to remind us of God’s promises, and much more. The craft is so important because it is a piece of the Bible that they take home, maybe hang on their wall, and it reminds them of the Bible story they’ve heard and what they’ve learned about the people of God. This is such an important ministry because we are able to tell parents, come just as you are. If your child needs to wander around during the service a bit, that’s fine. If they need to hold on to the shakers a bit longer, well we celebrate their zeal for worship. If the parents just need five minutes for a cup of coffee, we we’ll do some crafts with the children while you drink that cup. If you are new to church, or just want a simpler structure to your worship, this is an accessible way to experience the love of God and grow your faith with like-minded people. So do come along and see for yourself. "We had a great start to our new 11am family service. A good number of adults and children avidly listened to the storytelling, entered into the fun of the actions, joined in the songs of praise and helped make pieces of artwork."
Godly PlayChildren sitting on the floor in a circle around a teacher holding a mysterious golden box ready to hear a special story called a parable; this is the exciting story time called Godly Play that St James’s has been using since November. Godly Play is what Jerome Berryman calls his interpretation of Montessori religious education. Berryman says, ‘It is an imaginative approach for working with children, an approach that supports, challenges, nourishes, and guides their spiritual quest. It is more akin to spiritual guidance than to what we generally think of as religious education.’ Godly Play is a type of storytelling different from many other programmes that take a fun, active approach to the story. It has been described as a ‘deeply respectful experience with scripture’. We tell stories in fun and interactive ways weekly during our 11am family service, but we’ve decided to incorporate this quiet, contemplative type of storytelling twice a month to give children yet another way to creatively encounter God. We began our Godly Play endeavour with Jesus’s Parable, but there are many other Godly Play stories. What’s inside the gold box? The story always starts the same way When we went through the Parable of the Good Shepherd, the children showed great concern about a sheep that had been left behind in ‘the dangerous place’, but a sigh of relief passed through the circle as the Good Shepherd went back to rescue the sheep. After the story finishes, we wonder about what it could all mean. Each item is packed away with care in the golden box and children are released to contemplate the story in their own way with different response stations set up around the room. Children may use play dough to sculpt a figure from the story, we had some lovely sheep sculpted, or they may choose to draw a picture that reminds them of the story, like the tree that grew from the mustard seed. During this time the guides are available to answer questions about the story and ask the children how their art reminds them of what they heard or what it means. Nurturing their time with God We’ve experienced the Parable of the Good Shepherd, the Mustard Seed, the Sower, and the Leaven. More are sure to come as St James’s uses Godly Play to help children discover the depths of God, ourselves, one another and the world around us.
Find out moreTogether at Eleven (photo album) |
