Godly Play

St. Peter’s offers families of children ages three through first grade the opportunity to participate in Godly Play, an imaginative approach to working with children built upon Jerome Berryman’s interpretation of Montessori religious education that supports, challenges, nourishes and helps guide children’s spiritual quests, and through which participants experience a Christian community. The classroom is a calm, welcoming environment in which the children experience God through sacred stories told using three-dimensional figures, after which the children and the storyteller “wonder” together about aspects of the tale. The children experience a safe place in the Godly Play classroom—a place where they are deeply valued and respected. Godly Play helps children know God, and helps them become more fully aware of the mystery of God’s presence in their lives.

We offer Godly Play to children ages 3 through first grade, and divide the children by age into three classrooms. Godly Play is presented during the 9 o’clock service on the second, third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of the month (on the first Sunday of each month, children will remain in church for the service and children’s sermon). Parents bring their child(ren) to the Sunday School between 8:45 and 8:55 a.m. Upon arrival, children put on nametags and wait outside the door, then each is welcomed, one at a time, to the Godly Play circle, which is built slowly and lovingly. The program ends with parents meeting their children in the narthex during the “Peace”; children then join their parents for the remainder of the service. Contact: The Rev. Ann Martens.