Background: Why and how are we doing Sunday School in a Sack at St. Timothy Episcopal Church?

I have been at St. Timothy for a few years now.  We have been working out how to do Sunday School in a small church with a small population of children spread over a lot of ages.  I am a Godly Play trainer, and we have several trained but inexperienced GP teachers.  We were just making decisions about how to implement GP when we stopped attending church in person due to COVID-19.

After a few months, we decided we needed to do something.   First we planned a multi-generational Zoom art party focusing on Ascension.  Then we planned a Zoom Pentecost party, and dropped off bags of art supplies, s’more ingredients, and other assorted stuff to most of the congregation.  We had a talent show on Zoom for Pentecost.  We closed both parties with “Candle Walk.”

We had so much fun that we planned out a schedule of Godly Play stories.  We did parables this summer, and will start with Creation in September.  

We decided to loosely base this on GP.  I had to give up some of my GP/Montessori beliefs and let this become somewhat more Sunday School-ish.  I record Godly Play stories, and attempt to edit them. (Who knew I should have learned to edit video before all this?) I try to be very Godly Play when I record - if that makes sense.  In the story, I tell them where to find the story in the Bible and tell them they can decorate a bookmark for their own Bibles.  I invite them to do work of their choice, and mention art specifically.  We post the stories on the church’s Facebook page.

Part of our hope is to let parents work with kids, and also give the parents some rest from their kids, depending on how it’s going for them that week.  To support families, we purchased the Godly Play Parent Pages (you'll find them for Volumes 2, 3, and 4).  A Parent Page goes in every sack.  Some of our kids are just done with Zoom and with watching videos, so we hope the parents can share the stories the best they can, and ask the wondering questions that are included on the Parent Pages.  

Some families come to a weekly Zoom session, where I either tell the story live or play the recording, and we wonder together and show off what we have done.  

Every few weeks, we drop off sacks of supplies for families to enjoy together.