Complete Guide to Godly Play

Support, challenge, nourish, and guide children on their spiritual quest.Godly Play® is an imaginative approach to working with children, based on Montessori principles. It is more akin to spiritual direction and guidance than what we generally consider as religious education.Revised and expanded, The Complete Guide to Godly Play, Volume 6 offers new concepts and terminology, completely new illustrations, and a new structure that stems from more than fifteen years of using Godly Play with children across the world. More than 30 percent of the text is new or revised, including two new lessons, a revised introduction, and a full appendix. The latest digital Parent Pages (sold separately) and digital versions that correspond to these lessons are also available at www.churchpublishing.org/godlyplaydigital.

“This updated volume benefits greatly from insights of children and mentors over the fifteen years since its original release—the language is clearer, and connections to both Godly Play Core stories and the biblical text are stronger. Through these stories, we find examples of courage and resistance and remember God’s persistent commitment to journey with us over the course of our lives.” —The Reverend Emily Griffin, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Washington, DC “With a mix of new, slightly tweaked and wholly rewritten lessons, Jerome Berryman continues to bring the essence of our faith stories to life with accessible language that sparks a child’s engagement. The attention Dr. Berryman takes with each word choice allows children to connect their lives and today’s challenges to those of the People of God from long ago. I highly recommend this new publication.” —W. Lee Dickson, Godly Play Foundation Executive Director, Retired “‘The Great Family Grew’ . . . meet some more of them in this updated version of Volume 6. The addition of new stories and revisions to familiar ones is one of the things I love about Godly Play. Thanks for the ongoing commitment to improving both language, materials and instructions, that help us all come a little closer to the Holy and to one another.” —Reverend Ruth Lumax, Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada a

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.