Godly play – Jeanette Acland
Back in the 1950s and 1960s there was an attempt to engage children by teaching Bible verses off by heart. Children were often regarded as a blank canvas on which adults could imprint the values and teaching of the Bible. Since the 1950s we have learnt a lot about children and how people learn, and Godly play is a way of engaging people (children as well as adults) in the stories of the Bible in a very prayerful, playful, and tactile way. It is designed to invite people of all ages to wonder for themselves about what is going on in the Bible reading, rather than getting the right ‘answer’ from the teacher. Jeanette Acland has been teaching Godly play for several decades now and is a wonderful story-teller, so we hope that you will come along.