Godly Play, based on the educational theories of Maria Montessori, is a method of teaching the stories of Christianity.  The mind behind the method is Episcopal priest and early childhood educator Jerome Berryman who made use of materials that simply beg to be touched, manipulated and interacted with.  Now that we have invested in many of these materials, we've found that Godly Play is uncanny in its ability not only to teach but also to engage.  

It's been said that we don't read the Bible, it reads us.  That is, there's something about this library of stories, poems, prayers. parables, and passion that inform our humanity and inspire our living.  If this is true (and we think it is) then those who seek the God we know in Christ could hardly do better than to inhabit the stories that the church has been given to tell.  Godly Play helps to make this happen.  It's meant to do so for children, but we've found that is does so for adults as well.  There are lots of churches in the Berkshires that offer Godly Play for children (Old Parish, UCC in Sheffield; St. Paul's Episcopal in Stockbridge; Trinity and Church on the Hill in Lenox; to name a few).  Lacking a critical mass of children, we offer it for our adults in the remembrance of Christ who told his followers that, if they were to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must become as children, which we take in part to mean imaginative, curious, wonder-full.   

For more information, please follow these links:  http://www.godlyplay.org.  For an experience, join us some third or fifth Sunday of the month.

Last modified: April 19, 2010

Monterey United Church of Christ, 449 Main Road, Monterey, Massachusetts 01245  (413) 528-5850