Godly Play (edition 1995)

This excellent book does two things: It provides a new and powerful model for teaching children in the Sunday School setting, and it takes the reader on a fascinating voyage into the question, "What do we really want children to learn in Sunday School?"

Jerome Berryman is an Episcopal (Anglican) priest at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas. He was previously a Presbyterian minister, and is also a trained Montessori teacher.

This Montessori background provides to the ethos of Berryman's Sunday School class at the Cathedral. I would love to see his room

He discerns four levels of language about God. "AH", (the deep sigh of recognition that God is with us), the insight "AHA!", and the awareness of paradox and fun in God's creativity - "HAHA!"

Berryman builds these four responses into a theology of ritual, sacred story, parable and silence and shows how these relate to developmental processes and how there is a need for balance between the four for healthy Christian living.

Back in his classroom, the Children's Center is the desert - a transparent plastic box containing sand (a piece of the desert) - where so many things happened.

I have a suspicion that many important things in our children's learning could happen if we took Fr Berryman's insights seriously - and playfully.