Read an Excerpt

The Complete Guide to Godly Play

Volume 2, Revised and Expanded

Church Publishing Incorporated

Lesson 1

Circle of the Church Year

How the Church Tells Its Story

How to Use This Lesson

• Core Presentation

• Liturgical Action Lesson: lessons about sacraments or traditions of the church, which primarily use ritual and symbol to make meaning

• As the first lesson in Volume 2 of The Complete Guide to Godly Play, it is usually presented at the beginning of the program year, or alternative at the beginning of the liturgical year (the first Sunday in Advent).

• It is part of a comprehensive approach to Christian formation that consists of eight volumes. Together the lessons form a spiral curriculum that enables children to move into adolescence with an inner working knowledge of the classical Christian language system to sustain them all their lives.

The Material

• Location: Focal shelves

• Pieces: Circle of the Church Year Wall Hanging and Circle of the Church Year Presentation Set

• Underlay for Presentation Set: A neutral-colored three foot by two foot (about one meter by half a meter) rug or piece of felt.

Background

This lesson sets the context for the whole year. Each year, the Christian people move through a circle of memory and expectation to open themselves to the elusive presence of God. Moving through this circle is how the Church tells its story. In the Godly Play room, we pay attention to this circle of movement each week and therefore it is recommended that you begin each program year with this lesson.

This lesson uses the Circle of the Church Year Presentation Set, which includes a circular frame, fifty-two removable colored blocks, and a gold cord or ribbon.

You will also use the Circle of the Church Year Wall Hanging, which has colored cloth "blocks" for the Sundays of the year plus Christmas Day and a golden arrow that moves from Sunday to Sunday (block to block). From now on, begin each class by inviting a child to go to this wall hanging and move the golden arrow to the current Sunday (check the wall hanging before class to make sure that when the child moves the arrow to the next block, it will point to the right Sunday). This invites children to move through the Church's special kind of time, marked not by numbers but by blocks of color. The wall hanging should be hung low enough on the wall so the children can move the arrow as suggested.

Notes on the Material

In the Circle of the Church Year Presentation Set is a circle, about one foot (about thirty centimeters) in diameter, made from wood. Colored wooden blocks fit in a ring to mark each Sunday of the liturgical year, as well as the day of Christmas. Three arrow-shaped hands of this "clock" point to the three great times of the Church year. If you buy only one ready-made material from Godly Play Resources, we recommend that it be this one. Accurately cutting out these blocks is a difficult job.

You will use the gold cord or ribbon (about three feet [or approximately one meter] long) to show how time can be "in a line." This cord needs to be flexible and small enough to curl up inside your fist.

You will use a small neutral colored rug or piece of felt as an underlay. This helps the children focus on the lesson. In most Godly Play rooms, there is a basket of "work rugs" that the children use during response time. These can work well if they are neutral colors. If not, you should have a piece of felt cut for this purpose.

Traditions about the use of color for feast days or liturgical seasons vary greatly, even within denominations. As you order the material or prepare this lesson, please adjust as needed to match the colors actually used in your church.

Special Notes

Adapting the lesson to your setting

Godly Play stories were first written in the Northern Hemisphere. The Circle of the Church Year lesson is linked with the seasonal weather, movements of the sun, and the school year. For those who live in the Southern Hemisphere or near the Equator in tropical climates, it is necessary to adjust the script to your environment. Judyth Roberts, a Godly Play Trainer in Australia, uses these guidelines in training sessions for Godly Play Australia:

Think about where you live and what is happening at that time of the year. A sense of place is important. Are there signals in nature that can be noted? Do rains come or stop? Does it become lighter and the days get longer? Are there trees or flowers that are striking? Is it harvest time? Or summer school holidays? Using three or four sentences, summarize the changes that happen as Advent approaches.

Here is an example of how Roberts adapts the lesson:

Here are the rest of the green and growing Sundays. Winter comes and the days are shorter and colder. Then, as spring comes, the days grow longer, there is more light, and it gets warmer. The cicadas are noisy. The jacarandas drop flowers, making a purple carpet under the trees. It is holiday time, and it's time to get ready for the mystery of Christmas.

MovementsWords

      Now watch carefully.
      Here is the rug we
      need for this lesson.

Get up from your
position in the circle and
carefully cross the room to
get a rug or to get the felt
underlay you will use for the
lesson. Pick up a rug with
attentive care.

Bring the rug to the
circle, and roll it out just as
carefully and lovingly as you
would like the children to do.
This is especially important
for children younger than
eight years old.

      Watch where I go now to get the
      lesson.

Get up and walk around
the room in search of the
lesson. Reaching back and
pulling it off the shelf isn't
dramatic enough to catch the
children's attention. Help
them remember where to find
this story.

      Hm. It's not where the Sacred
      Stories are. It's not where
      the Parables are. Ah,
      here it is! This is the
      lesson about the
      Circle of the Church Year.

Sit down in the circle
with the rug in front of you.
Place the material to your
side. As you do so, pick up the
gold cord and enclose it in
your right hand so that you
can pull it out through a
space between two fingers
from right to left. Keep eye
contact with the children as
you hide the cord in your
hand and begin the story.

      Time, time, time ...
      there are all kinds of
      time. There is a time
      to get up in the
      morning. There is a
      time to go to bed.
      There is a time to go
      to school and a time
      to come home. There
      is a time to work, and
      there is a time to
      play. But what is time?

Until now, the gold cord
has been hidden, but now you
show a small end of the cord
extending between your
fingers, and you suddenly
notice it.

      Some people say that
      time is in a line. But
      I wonder what that
      would look like? Ah
      ... wait a minute!
      What is this? Time.
      Time in a line. This
      is time in a line.
      Look at this. Here is
      the beginning. It is
      the newest part. It is
      just being born. It is
      brand new. Now look.

Moving from right to left,
pull out the cord slowly as
you speak. Pull it all the way
out from your fist slowly as
you talk until it drops to the
rug.

      Look. It is getting
      older. The part that
      was new is now
      getting old. I wonder
      how long time goes.
      Does it go forever?
      Could there ever be
      an ending?

The end of the cord
drops. Pick up the cord and
look at it.

      It ended. Look at the
      ending.

Hold the two ends and
look at them.

      The beginning that
      was so new at the
      beginning now is
      old. The ending is
      the new part now.
      We have a beginning
      that is like an ending
      and an ending that is
      like a beginning.

Tie the two ends
(beginnings) together. Then
put the circle of wooden
blocks on the rug or underlay
to your left so that there is
room for the blocks as you
remove them on the right side.
Place the golden cord around
the wooden circle.

      Do you know what
      the church did? They
      tied the ending that is
      like a beginning and
      the beginning that is
      like an ending
      together, so we
      would always
      remember that for
      every ending there is
      a beginning and for
      every beginning
      there is an ending.

Leave the golden cord on
the material and begin to
remove the blocks. Place them
to the right of the presentation
set on the underlay. Begin
with the "three great times"
(a white Christmas block, a
white Easter block, and a red
Pentecost block). When you
pick up the red Pentecost
block, drop it quickly; it's so
hot! Remember to speak of the
"three great times," because
Christmas is not always on a
Sunday.

      Here are the three
      great times. This is
      Christmas. This is
      Easter. This is
      — ouch!
      That's hot! This is
      Pentecost.

Sit back for a moment,
and look at the blocks for the
three great times. Point to
each of the blocks as you
say:

      Each one of these is
      a great mystery.
      Sometimes, people
      miss these mysteries.
      They walk right
      through them and
      don't even know
      they're there. We
      need to get ready to
      come close to them
      every year.

Place the four purple (or
blue) blocks of Advent in a
line to the right (your right) of
the white block for Christmas,
starting with the farthest right
so that each block moves
closer to Christmas. Place the
six purple blocks for Lent in a
line to the right (your right) of
the white block for Easter in
the same way.

      Here are the times
      for getting ready.
      The time for getting
      ready to come close
      to the mystery of
      Christmas is called
      "Advent." The time
      for getting ready to
      come close to the
      mystery of Easter is
      called "Lent."

Touch first the four
blocks of Advent, then the six
blocks of Lent.

      Look. The time for
      getting ready to
      come close to the
      mystery of Easter is
      longer than the time
      for getting ready to
      come close to the
      mystery of
      Christmas. I wonder?

Put the second white
block to the right of the
Christmas block. (Note: We
know that in some places the
white days of Christmas
continue for even longer than
twelve days. Please adjust as
necessary.)

      But of course
      Christmas is so
      wonderful a mystery
      that we don't just
      celebrate on one day,
      but rather we keep
      celebrating for
      twelve days —
      right up until
      Epiphany. This
      means it has two
      Sundays.

Count out six more white
Sunday blocks for the season
of Easter, and place them to
the right (your right) of the
red block for Pentecost.

      Easter is also
      wonderful, so you
      can't keep it on one
      Sunday. It overflows
      and goes on for six
      more Sundays. It
      makes a whole
      season!

Touch Pentecost again,
but snatch your hand away
because it's still hot.

      he season of Easter
      s also a time for
      etting ready to
      ome close to the
      ystery of Pentecost.
      uch! It's still hot.

Now only green blocks
are left in the circle. Begin to
remove them in groups of
three, and place them on the
rug in groups of three. Refer
to the diagram for correct
placement. Pace yourself; you
don't want to rush, but you do
want to get the blocks out
before the children lose
interest. After all the blocks
are removed, take away the
gold cord.

      Here are all of the
      great, green, growing
      Sundays of the year.
      Now let's see if we
      can build the circle
      of the year again.
      Watch carefully,
      because the Church
      tells time by colors
      as well as by clocks.

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Excerpted from The Complete Guide to Godly Play by Jerome W. Berryman. Copyright © 2017 Jerome W. Berryman. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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