There once was someone who did such amazing things and said such wonderful things that people wanted to follow him. One day a long, long, time after, someone thought these things were so wonderful that they should develop a way for these wonders to be told again and again so that everyone alive today could continue to wonder deeply about them. So they developed a method of storytelling called “Godly Play”.
I wonder whether they thought it would end up on the absolute opposite end of the world?
Well in the last week of the October school holidays, Godly Play Core Training was organised by the Presbytery of Tasmania with two key GP trainers, Judyth Roberts and Carolyn Handley. Generous concessions for congregational members and specified ministry agents were made possible by a Regionalisation Grant from the Synod’s equipping Leadership for Mission unit and Pilgrim Theological College and from the Presbytery and enabled 15 people from across the state to enrol. They came, shared of the generous and radical hospitality of the Kingston Uniting Church Adult Fellowship and returned to their churches equipped with new possibilities.
I was one and it made me wonder. Through the deliberate avoidance of alliteration, through the emerging skill of the story tellers as they worked with the tools of visual aids, body language, breath, time, and…of course… wonder, the stories we have been told, some of us for a life time, lit up like beacons of new epiphany. Reflecting recently with a well-seasoned GP practitioner, we marvelled at the profoundness of the group as we all engaged in the stories of our faith together. Without even naming it, we were all engaged in “theological reflection” at the level some of us went to seminary to obtain.
We had all the time we needed and we all left full. Full of the Spirit. Most importantly, we all learned a new spiritual practice which adult hood has helped us all to un-learn. Wonder.
Rev Michael Duke