Help & Support

For the first half of her working life, Alison was a children’s nurse and health visitor, during which time she trained as a Reader for Children’s Ministry. From 2002-2018 she was children and families’ pastor and Reader at St Andrew’s, Churchdown. She discovered Godly Play in 2002, thanks to a chance conversation with Peter Privett. It led to power tools, copious quantities of felt, and it shaped her, and her ministry with children and other groups.  

Now retired, she volunteers with the Chaplaincy at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where she is working out what Godly Play looks like in this very specific context. She is also collaborating with schools in Gloucestershire to explore how Godly Play can inform the delivery of RE and PHSE.  She is a guide at Discover DeCrypt in Gloucester – the church associated with Robert Raikes, founder of the Sunday School movement – where there is a Godly Play room. Alison enjoys travel and has visited places as disparate as Romania and Thailand with Godly Play in her suitcase.

Contact: alison@godlyplay.uk

Until recently Andrea was employed by the Salvation Army as a Godly Play Enabler. She enjoyed traveling the UK and many other countries to support and encourage people working with children and adults in disparate contexts.

She regularly uses Godly Play in local schools and at the Anglican church where she is a licensed lay minister.

She offers introductory days, taster sessions, retreats and three day core training in Godly Play.

Contact: andrea@godlyplay.uk

Brenton is Methodist Minister who was born in South Africa, spent 11 years in Australia, and moved to the United Kingdom in March 2020. Brenton has a passion for intergenerational ministry, with a particular focus on helping congregations to include children and young people into the life-long, all-of-life journey of discipleship. In his quest to find methodologies and practices that did not (at worst) ignore and devalue children and (at best) regard them as the ‘church of the future’, Brenton attended a three-day Godly Play Core Training at Godly Play Australia’s Inaugural Conference in Australia in July 2011, and immediately fell head over heels in love with the ethos and practice of Godly Play. He has been an accredited trainer since 2015, and is a passionate advocate for Godly Play and anything else that values and nurtures the spirituality of children.

Contact: brenton@godlyplay.uk

Cass Meurig lives in Bala in North Wales and is a curate in the Church in Wales and musician. She teaches and trains people in Godly Play through the medium of Welsh as well as English and recently published her Welsh translations of the Godly Play stories.

Diana is based in Abergavenny in South Wales. She is a physiotherapist by profession but since having children has been working in her local primary school and nursery. She is now changing track again back into rehabilitation! Diana’s Sunday school sessions and own spirituality were completely transformed by the discovery of Godly Play and she has become a passionate advocate for this approach ever since. She has now been involved in bringing Godly Play to her community for well over a decade and became a trainer in 2015. Diana has experience of using Godly Play with all age groups, from toddler groups, nursery settings and primary schools to teenagers, adults and elderly groups. She runs Sunday morning Godly Play sessions between a permanent Godly Play room in one church and a ‘mobile’ space in another, and has contributed to a variety of all age services. Diana runs training for Godly Play across South Wales and further afield and has especially been encouraged by its growth within the region’s Catholic Primary schools. She is looking forward to discovering more about childhood spirituality, God and herself and continuing see the growth of Godly Play in Wales and across the UK.

I’ve been using Godly Play with children, teenagers and adults for over ten years, and value the space it allows for listening and exploration. I am based in Cambridge where I am the Children and Families Minister in a local Anglican church.

Playing with my children and being their mum has been the ‘biggest gift’ I could have received. Over the last twelve years this gift has revealed more and more of the life God invites me to participate in. My early training as a speech and language therapist, voluntary work in school and church, and an interest in children’s well-being all form part of the backdrop to a new, late ‘career’ as a Play Therapist; a good fit with being a Godly Player! I am also Foundation Governor of a Primary school.

I have lived most of my life near the south coast. Although our children have left home, Martin and I continue to enjoy the gleeful company of children and it is a privilege to watch and listen as they share their discoveries about the world, themselves, each other, and God. Playing with God in this way has brought me into a wonderful circle of fellow adults pilgrims too, in the Sussex Godly Play Network, a network that extends beyond county (and even country) boundaries. Do look us up and join us!

Contact: judy@godlyplay.uk

I love sitting in children’s circles and wondering together. I value the opportunities for reflection and making meaning integral to Godly Play. I have found the circle to be a wonderful place for my own formation. I have practiced Godly Play in several churches for over seven years in English and Turkish. I am an accredited trainer in Turkey and the UK. At a local school in London, I have offered Godly Play lunchtime clubs since the beginning of the Pandemic. My background is in human rights and this is what I do professionally. Being with God and children and advocating for a sacred and safe space for children in religious and spiritual formation is something I am keen to learn more about. I am based in London and am very happy to share my enthusiasm with others who want to explore and learn together. I also enjoy making materials.

Natalie worked in Brussels as a Children and Youth Worker before moving to England to begin training for ordination in the Church of England. Her love of Godly Play began in university and was sustained after training as a storyteller in 2016 and working with children in an multinational church. Since coming to England she’s been involved in the Godly Play programme at Ripon College Cuddesdon, and is passionate about the way Godly Play can help church leaders to better understand and care for the spiritual needs of children as well as offering tools for whole life discipleship. She lives near Oxford with her partner Jeremy and their two children.

I trained as a teacher in the halcyon days of the late 1960s working in schools in Birmingham and the Industrial Midlands where creativity and child-centered education ruled the day.  

I was ordained in 1978 as an Anglican priest, working in UK parishes in Birmingham, and then as a Diocesan Education Adviser in rural Herefordshire. 

I’ve been a Godly Play Trainer since 2002. Rebecca Nye and I originally looked after the UK. We did one training and thought that would be it, but people kept asking for more. Then people from other parts of the world asked us to train them, so we did.

I now live in Rugby and sometimes help with services at St Andrew’s Church. Recently the clergy vestry has been renovated incorporating a full Godly Play space where we hold sessions every week.

Other time is taken up with community art projects, painting scenery at our local community theatre, singing, sometimes acting, and getting lost in gardening… my wife often wonders why it takes so long to sort out a compost heap!

Contact: peter@godlyplay.uk

I first encountered Godly Play while working as a Divisional Children’s Officer with The Salvation Army and I admit that I was unconvinced about it, even after attending the 3-day training in May 2012. It wasn’t until I shared a story and wondering with a group of children and young people that I became hooked, as the engagement and wondering responses were something I had never experienced before! Since then I have continued to experience the growing influence of Godly Play across so much of my ministry and personal spiritual journey. I have offered Godly Play in settings with children and young people in all shapes and expressions of church, and with many adults including on retreats, conferences, and adult groups, and find the space and time offered by this approach to be incredibly rich and valuable.

I live in the East Midlands near Leicester and work for the United Reformed Church East Midlands Synod as Children’s and Youth Development Officer. I co-lead the Godly Play network in Nottinghamshire alongside seeking to grow the use of Godly Play within the URC.

Contact: richard@godlyplay.uk

Sian lives in Bristol and works as an Avon and Somerset Young Victims’ Advocate supporting children and young people affected by crime, anti-social behaviour or domestic abuse, which provides coping and recovery therapy and accompanying families through the criminal justice system.

She has worked with children, young people and their families in a range of settings over the years. As Mum of two daughters, Sian led and managed a community pre-school and discovered her vocation for teaching, so became a primary school teacher. Alongside this, she remained in the youth ministry team at her church. Subsequently, Sian took all her experience and became a Tutor at Bristol Baptist College in 2008, teaching children and family workers. This was where she first encountered Godly Play and since then has used it almost everywhere, creating Godly Play spaces in two Baptist churches and working with the ministers to share Godly Play with the whole congregation. Sian has worked with local primary schools both as part of School Chaplaincy and as a Godly Play Trainer. 

Sian is passionate to see children discover their own spirituality and faith journey. She is currently writing up her research for a Professional Doctorate in Practical Theology, focussing on the theological endeavour of listening to the voices of girls aged 7-14 years. And when she has a moment, shares time with her family, her neighbourhood book group and walking Pippin the Cavalier.

Contact: sian@godlyplay.uk

Sue has been a FE lecturer, primary school teacher and youth and children’s worker. She set up the Godly Play room behind Christ Church, Ottershaw in the Diocese of Guildford and worked for a twelve years developing its use in training for schools, churches and adult discipleship courses. Now a ‘Trainer Emeritus’ as regards main training, she plans to focus on writing, mentoring and helping with development within GPUK, but is still keen to help and support anyone in their Godly Play journey – so please do feel free to contact her!

Contact: sue@godlyplay.uk

Susie is a supply teacher with many years teaching experience, with a particular love for the early years. She is on the local SACRE and has a lot of experience of introducing teachers and schools to Godly Play. In the last few years she has become passionate about raising awareness of the impact of early trauma on children, and has starting training people in ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences). She works part time for the Methodist Church, where she runs a new parent and toddler group, and tutors local children. So many different “hats” but one core love – that of being involved in children’s lives. A mindfulness of the treasure that is childhood spirituality is a common thread that runs through all of the different roles. Godly Play neatly pulls the threads together for Susie; whether working with children or adults; in church or in schools. Susie has a Godly Play room “on wheels”, and leads a network based in Hull.