Friday, July 6, 2012

Godly Play: Baptism / Die Taufe


Two weeks ago, we heard the Godly Play story about baptism. This story is from the genre of liturgical stories and combines teaching about the Trinity with what happens when a person is baptized. 

This is the second time I've told the story and it is always a hit with the kids, because it involves water and they can "baptize"the dolls afterwards.

In our church tradition, we don't baptize babies (instead we have a "blessing" in which the parents commit to a Christian upbringing. Rather than using a baby doll for this story (which most GP storytellers use), I use a dollhouse figure. Last time, I had an adult woman figure. But this time, I decided to use 2 figures of older children, a boy and a girl, to see if the children would identify with them more.

Although I asked my daughter beforehand if it was okay to use her dolls, she had a bit of a crisis when I started "baptizing" the dolls. So I ended up having to tell the story a second time, since the other child present couldn't concentrate because of her interruptions. (This is why it is good to have a "door person". I have a door person for larger groups at school, but not at our church brunches.)



There is no official "wondering" time with this story, but the kids wanted to hear the story of my baptism, since I was the only one present who had actually been baptized.

When our group is this small, the kids don't usually play much with the story materials, but go straight to the art supplies. This time, though, the combination of water, sand and candles was too much fun to pass up.

I will be curious to see what conversations come up in the next few weeks about baptism!


8 comments:

  1. Wonderful gold girdles (waist cords)! I'm interested in reading more about the mechanics of the lesson as you did it - how did it work getting these dolls' robes wet, both when you did it and when children later did it themselves? Did it create any problems for putting the work away afterwards? Was it at all awkward having two dolls to baptize? I'm also tempted to ask a few more questions about your materials, but maybe you've written about them in another post.

    Asking so many questions should not be taken as a criticism of your post, though. It's a sign of interest! :) Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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    1. The gold girdles are golden pipe cleaners. I just let the felt dry out afterwards and it was fine. Actually, the clothes are still on the dolls, because my daughter didn't want to take them off.: ) . . . I didn't find it awkward to baptize two dolls. I just repeated the same speech with each doll. It made the story a little longer, though. . . . Please ask as many questions as you want. Even if you were giving constructive criticism, I would welcome that, because it's part of the conversation and part of the learning process.: )

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  2. It's a lovely point here that you were asked about your own baptism after the lesson. Beautiful.

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    1. I thought so as well. It added a whole other dimension to the story that we didn't experience the first time that I told it.

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  3. Shelia,
    Thanks for sharing this experience of telling the Godly Play Baptism story in a community that baptizes children, youth, or adults, but not babies. When I began my journey with Godly Play over 20 years ago, our faith community (Disciples of Christ) in Austin, Texas had to struggle with this difference between Jerome's script and Episcopalian tradition and our tradition of baptism after confession of faith. We ended up using a figure like the one from Godly Play Resources used for the Synagogue and Upper Room. We tried to make something as close to what the children experienced at our church. This was done with Jerome's blessing and encouragement. We used 2 figures, one adult size and one child size. For a time we were able to work with GPR to develop materials for this adaptation to the lesson. Our children would then use these figure to baptize. Our teaching team also developed a lesson for the blessing of babies and children that mirrored our practice. Keep going with your gut instincts! And I encourage you to ask questions... Have you seen this before? What do you like best? and so forth. Blessings in your work, Becki Stewart Godly Play Trainer, Falls Church, VA USA

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    1. Wow, Becky, 20 years with Godly Play! I think you should write a blog about your experiences. Thanks for the encouragement to go with my gut instincts. I try to do that, but I also realize that I am on a learning journey. I cringe at some of the things I wrote when I first started blogging about GP 2 years ago. But that is part of the process. And dialoguing with other people has brought me so much further.

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  4. Amazing Godly play. This is one tip for me to play also in our church. But I think its very hard to tell the kids the essence of the play. I want to know the exact ages of the kids to get involve of this play. Thanks. God Bless you.

    A webmaster of anzug für babys

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    1. Hi there, Godly Play is for all kids ages "3-99"! The kids in my group are between the ages of 4 and 8. If you are really interested, please get a copy of "Teaching Godly Play" by Jerome Berryman to learn the basics.

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