Page 15 - Demo

Every child has known God.
Not the God of names.
Not the God of don’ts.
Not the God who ever does anything weird.
But the God who knows only four words and keeps repeating them, saying,
Come Dance with Me. Come
Dance.
This poem, by the fourteenth century Su mystic Ha z inspired the Childhood Spirituality Conference hosted by Godly Play UK on 12 and 13 May 2017.
The conference, held at She eld Cathedral in the north of England, was attended by almost two hundred people. Re ecting on dance as an art form, Peter Privett, one of two main speakers, suggested that it ‘is the one that most reminds us of our own mortality . . . of all the art forms, it is the one that is the most eeting, the most ephemeral, transitory, because it operates in time and space. Unlike a painting, it lasts for only the amount time it takes for a movement to happen, and then it is gone. It calls us to live in this moment.’ By contrast, at the conference John Bell of the Iona Community in Scotland considered the tangibility of Jesus, looking at Gospel accounts of ways in which he came close to people and, in defying social taboos, released them from whatever bound them.
The Cathedral proved to be a splendid venue. Extended around an ancient medieval church when She eld became a great industrial city following the industrial revolution, the Cathedral’s many beautiful chapels proved wonderful spaces for a range of afternoon workshops and regional meetings and provided space for variety of stalls. The Cathedral, possibly
uniquely for an English Cathedral, has its own Godly Play Room, which was well-used throughout the Conference.
Mark Elvin, Chair of Bowthorpe Community Trust, a sheltered workshop which is the UK’s o cial supplier of Godly Play materials, was warmly welcomed when he described the way in which the Trust supports people with learning disabilities to provide materials used across the country and beyond. Their stall, stretching half-way down the building’s south aisle, included an example of every item they make! The rest of the aisle was taken up by a ea market to serve Godly Players, o ering art resources, baskets, stones for the wilderness, and a host of other treasures.
The Conference also saw the launch of a new venture: the opportunity to become an Associate of Godly Play UK. It is hoped that this development will widen the Trust’s support base, allowing it to work more widely and o er training to places with di erent needs and to those for whom it might otherwise be inaccessible.
Godly Play UK’s Advocates, recruited nationally and trained at our last Conference, worked closely and very e ectively with the Trainers to set up and ensure the Conference ran smoothly. They worked together with an invaluable group of local volunteers recruited by Kate Cornwell, a She eld Trainer, who took on the role of event co- ordinator and master-minded the whole thing. We couldn’t
have been made more welcome by the Cathedral Chapter and all their sta , and those attending took away with them an experience of warm Yorkshire hospitality as well as new insights, challenges and ambitions.
Gill Ambrose is Chair of the Trustees of Godly Play UK.
A GODLY PLAY QUARTERLY PUBLICATION 15
A LOOK BACK
ON OUR 2017 UNITED KINGDOM CONFERENCE SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND