It's all holy ground

It's been good to be home this week after visiting Chicago, Indianapolis, New York and Philadelphia. Sleeping in my own bed and weeding my flower beds has felt quite delightful after being on the road for almost three weeks.

The Godly Play teacher training at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center in Philadelphia, was a deeply satisfying and enriching experience. Quakers from 15 different states built a circle and engaged and experienced Godly Play, substituting their unique and particular "liturgy" lessons that reflect their practices of worship and experiencing of God.

We joined the staff and visitors every morning in silent worship, sitting for a half hour in silence together. During the silence of Sunday morning worship, a woman stood and sung a simple and beautiful refrain: "This is holy ground."

Later in the day as we built a circle for the last time and got ready to say our goodbyes, we were reminded of the parable we had just worked with earlier that was also about ground - about soil.

"There once was a person who did amazing things and who said such wonderful things that people followed him and asked him about this 'kingdom' he was always talking about...and one time he answered them by talking about ground - about soil: hard, packed soil, soil with rocks, thorny soil, and good soil that was ready. And as we stood together in a circle thinking about the soil of our journey, personally, with Godly Play, and in our journey of that weekend we made the connection with morning worship: IT'S ALL HOLY GROUND - ALL OF IT!