Now we have been running
for two years
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What exactly is the St Michael’s Story-telling
Service at 9.30am on Sundays?
The 9.30am Story-telling Service is loosely based around
‘Godly Play’, an established method of telling Bible stories, or
presenting parables or lessons about religious traditions.
There are no rules about the age of the children attending, and
choices will be based on how their parents and brothers or
sisters wish to attend services. The C-Club, which children of
any age can attend, continues to run with the 11.00am service.
The story telling is aimed at children aged up to the end of
infant school, say seven years. They are encouraged to
imagine themselves in the story, viewing it from their own
personal experience.
The Story-telling Service adopts the established pattern of
Christian worship. We aim to prepare children to join in the
worship and life of congregations as they develop a deeper
understanding of stories, symbols and ceremony.
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After a general welcome and song, everyone moves
from the nave into the chancel at the East end of the
church. The children gather in a circle on the new carpet
around the storyteller, and settle down in expectation of
the day's presentation. Adults can either sit with them on
the carpet or on the surrounding seats.
Next, God's word in the form of a story is presented as
something to which a special kind of attention is paid by
both adults and children alike - a mysterious gift rather
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than as entertainment or straight teaching. Threedimensional models are used to illustrate the stories in
the centre of the carpet.
The group of children and adults then ‘wonder’ together
about the many meanings for them in the presentation.
Then a time is set aside for short prayers, followed by a
simple ‘feast’ of food and a drink.
We return to the nave for a final song and blessing.
The service ends at about 10.05am.
Some questions and answers about the Story-telling
Service
1. Why was the service introduced?
The church is concerned in welcoming new members of all ages. We are
hoping to meet the needs of families with young children who may find this
length and style of service easier to attend than the later, conventional
morning service. In time, we intend to positively invite families who have in
the past been involved in baptisms in our church.
2. Which service is suitable for me/my children?
If you have young children already settled in C-Club, which children of any
age can attend, you will probably carry on as normal with the 11.00am
service, and you may prefer that their younger brothers and sisters will do
the same. You have to judge how you wish your family to attend services.
The story telling at 9.30am is aimed at children aged up to the end of infant
school, about 7 years.
3. I don’t bring children to church, but would be interested to see a
Story-telling Service. Can I come along or volunteer to help?
Anyone is welcome to attend, whether with or without children. However,
once we have been running for a while, we aim to provide a ‘demonstration’
at one of the 11.00am services so that anyone there can see how we are
operating.
On the matter of helpers, in order to increase the total number of adults
involved, we drew the start-up team from people not currently doing church
youth work. In the future, once needs are identified, we would welcome
volunteers via the Rector.
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4. Has this affected the existing children’s arrangements on Sunday
morning?
The well-established and popular C-Club continues as before, except for
the service start time moving from 10.30 to 11.00am.
5. What is the relationship between C-Club and the Story-telling
service?
The Story-telling service is a new venture, and there is no formal
arrangement. Children who start with the new 9.30am service could well
end up joining the 11.00am C-Club when they/their parents feel ready. This
choice may be influenced by how the rest of the family use their Sunday
mornings. There is still the option for children of a young age to join C-Club
directly.
6. What does ‘Godly Play’ actually mean?
Godly Play is an approach based on Montessori principles - we respond to
the child's request to 'help me do it by myself.’ This puts the teacher in the
role of spiritual supporter or guide who fully accepts that each child has his
or her own relationship with God already. Storybooks, with guidance on
how to tell them, are readily available. The wooden models we use are
made (amongst other suppliers) at the David Lewis Centre. A similar
system, based on ‘Young Children and Worship’ teaching materials, will
also be used for some of the stories. The timing of the stories will be loosely
based on the church calendar.
7. I like to chat with other adults over a coffee after church
The introduction of the new service has led us into having a ‘shared’ coffee
period starting at 10.15 and ending just before the 11.00am service. This
allows fellowship between the congregations of both services. We will have
to see how this works out over the next few months.
8. Will there be a crèche during the Story-telling Service?
No. The service is very informal, and children younger than those involved
in the story telling will be cared for by their parents.
9. Will the Story-telling Service operate every week?
We intend to run this service every week of the year that helpers are
available and there is demand from the children and their parents.
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10. Who is paying for the teaching materials needed to run the Storytelling Service?
The materials have so far been bought out of general church funds or
donated by individuals. Some of the story-telling models have been loaned
from All Saints, or the Diocese, which has a ‘bank’ of these.
11. Will there be a review of the Story-telling Service to decide
whether it is successful enough to continue?
We will of course be constantly trying to make improvements as we gain
experience of this type of worship. An evaluation of the scheme will be
made by DCC in March 2007.
12. How are you publicising the Story-telling Service to the public?
Once we have sufficient experience of running the service we will produce
press articles and be approaching families from our baptism records.
13. What other groups are open to St Michael’s young people?
There are evening meetings of Blur (11-14 years), Focus (15-18), 6AB (1925) and 3D (a bible study and discussion group for young adults of 18 plus).
These groups cater for young people from any church in the Team Parish.
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