Complete Guide to Godly Play

The Godly Play® approach helps children explore their faith through story, to gain religious language, and to enhance their spiritual experience through wonder and play. Based on Montessori principles and developed using a spiral curriculum, the Godly Play® method services children through early, middle, and late childhood and beyond. Revised and expanded, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 4, offers new concepts, new terminology, new illustrations, and a new structure that stem from more than 10 years of using Godly Play® with children across the world. Thirty to forty percent of the text is new or revised, including a new lesson, revised Introduction, and a full Appendix.

"I wonder what's different about this version of Godly Play Volume 4? Plenty! New presentations take us beyond Pentecost; appendices take us deeper into the foundational documents and explore the Spiral Curriculum; scripts have been refreshed to take account of 40 years of Godly Play experience. I'm excited that this revised volume builds on the work that has gone before."––The Reverend Mary Hawes, National Children & Youth Adviser, Church of England"This updated volume has clear instructions for use of the lessons leading children through the holy mysteries of the Lenten and Easter seasons as well as Pentecost and Trinity Sunday."––Sharon Massie, Program Director at Grace Episcopal Church, Lexington, Virginia"The new revised and expanded edition of The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 4 is an excellent addition to the Godly Play curriculum. The new formatting of the stories make them more user friendly for the storytellers with helpful suggestions on how to use the lesson and additional background information which help connect the story to the liturgical year. The fresh look and feel of the revision reminds us how the spiral curriculum of Godly Play helps our children enter into the religious language and the presence of God by going deeper into the wondering, thus creating the opening for the work of the Holy Spirit. For more than 26 years, Godly Play has been my heart and life work and I am grateful to share this updated edition with my teachers and the children we serve to enhance their Godly Play teaching experience."––Lynne Jensen, Minister for Children, Youth and their Families at Christ Church Christiana Hundred in Wilmington, Delaware and Godly Play Mentor and Retired Trainer

JEROME W. BERRYMAN is the founder of Godly Play and has a wide experience working with children ages 2–18. Priest, writer, lecturer, and workshop leader, Berryman is Senior Fellow of the Center for the Theology of Childhood. He is the author of The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Teaching Godly Play, Children and the Theologians, The Spiritual Guidance of Children, and Stories of God at Home. Cheryl V. Minor is the Director of the Center for the Theology of Childhood, the academic/publishing arm of the Godly Play Foundation. For the past eighteen years she has served as Co-Rector at The Parish of All Saints' Church in Belmont, Massachusetts. With a degree in Music Education from Boston University, an M.Div. from Virginia Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Northcentral University in Scottsdale, AZ, her dissertation examined the impact of Godly Play on the spiritual well-being of children. Dr. Minor is also a Godly Play Trainer and has been deeply involved in designing the Godly Play Foundation's training models. Rosemary Beales is Chaplain to the Lower School at St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a practitioner and trainer in the Godly Play method of religious education with a DMin from Virginia Theological Seminary. The Rev. Beales is a former journalist and currently serves as priest associate at St. Paul's in Alexandria and St. Alban's in Annandale, Virginia.