Many thanks to those who supported Little Dragons at the St. George’s Day Service, when we played our part by demonstrating Circle Time.  It is the main focus and always a highlight of our weekly sessions and it was good to share it with the Sunday congregation.  Our effort was woven into the main service and I hope that we weren't too obtrusive when ‘off-stage’. 

One of the most important aspects of our sessions is one of sharing and, hopefully, this was evident during our time together.  Everyone in our team is committed to enabling every member of the group to feel that they are of equal importance and that they all have the right and opportunity to play as full a part as they wish in the proceedings.  We all aim to provide for the various needs of, not only Little Dragons, but also of carers.  A friendly face, a kind word, a few moments of support with a child can make such a difference to a carer who may be feeling lonely, harassed or just in need of some cheerful or meaningful adult conversation.

A remark was made following the Service as someone in the congregation wondered, ‘Where was the church in that?’ –  querying, I suppose, how or where religion plays a part in Circle Time.  We as a group are not actually in the business of imploring, persuading or advocating any particular form of religion during our Little Dragons sessions.  Our Charter explains that the group hopes to ‘Give a warm welcome to everyone, whatever their age, relationship to the child, culture, religious background, colour, gender or disability;offering a safe and happy environment for the team to work with parents, carers and children; offering true friendship to everyone who comes to our group and creating an environment where friendships can be made among our group members.’

As caring Christians, we use our work with LDs as a form of Outreach into the community, not to say, ‘this is what you should do!’ but rather, ‘we welcome you!’    At the end of Circle Time we always hold hands and occasionally, as we did on this particular occasion, manage a few moments when we ‘hear the silence!’  This is no mean feat with an age range from 4 months to 3+ years but we sometimes manage to achieve it.   It has long been a belief of mine that ‘hearing the silence’ can be the beginning of the development of spirituality, especially in the lives of young children.  Discussing this with one of our congregation who is well-versed and experienced in ways of faith and spiritual matters, it was good to find that she agreed.  Following our talk she provided me with the following extract from Archbishop Antony Bloom’s, ‘Encounter’.

“One can educate a person to take in quiet and silence.  I know a teacher of small children, who lets them play and then periodically suddenly says to them, ‘Be quiet!  Listen!’  and they immediately sit as if under a spell and listen to silence.  They experience it, because the noise which they were making has stopped, and silence becomes real.  If you have learned to listen to silence, you will, maybe, learn in that silence to hear the Presence.”

All around us people are involved in oh-so-busy lives, with many stresses and worries both real and imagined.  Maybe if we can spend just a little time listening to the silence we may find or rediscover that Presence which at times seems to be missing. Food for thought perhaps!!

Val Butterworth