About

Faith & Play™ Stories, Inc., operates as a 501(c)(3) religious non-profit corporation. Members of the leadership group are all officially the Trustees of the corporation, whose job is to manage all aspects of the organization, including:

• Creating, testing, and publishing Faith & Play stories;
• Training storytellers to use Faith & Play and Godly Play stories;
• Providing directions for making story materials, and making them available in kit form;
• Making publications, trainings, and materials as affordable as possible, so that cost is not a barrier to using Faith & Play stories; and
• Nurturing our various communities of practice.

The work is also supported by a group of trained, experienced storytellers from around the US, who share drafts of stories in their circles of children in Quaker meetings and Friends schools. Their role is to test stories under development and provide feedback, serve as regional liaisons as needed, and act as a sounding board for matters related to Faith & Play Stories.

The Beginning

The Faith & Play Group took shape in 2005, as a working group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and a project of Friends General Conference. We are grateful for the early support of both organizations. Faith & Play Stories incorporated in 2018. The first stories were published in 2008, followed by more in 2010, 2012 and 2017.  Late in 2017, the complete collection of 16 stories was revised and published in a second edition. More stories are in the works.

In 2010, two members of our group were trained as accredited Godly Play trainers by a third Friend working for the Godly Play Foundation. Together, they developed “Playing in the Light” which is a core training for Friends using Godly Play and Faith & Play stories. One of those two early trainers continues this work today, and developed a companion training, ”Learning in the Light“, for Friends school educators. Trainings and workshops for Friends have happened in eight countries and across the US, from Alaska to Florida.

Faith & Play Today

In spring 2024, Faith & Play Stories received a generous grant from the Thomas and Mary Williams Shoemaker Fund for a two-year project, “Finding Ourselves in the Story: Growing Faith & Play for Friends.” The project began in September 2024, and will expand work with stories and training, alongside supporting the hope to nurture families in meetings and grow intergenerational spiritual community. Faith & Play Stories looks forward to collaborations with Meetings, Yearly Meetings, and other Quaker organizations, and the growth ahead. The project is directed by Director of Communication & Training, Melinda Wenner Bradley. Updates are shared here on the website, and in e-news to subscribers. In 2025, we’re celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Faith & Play Stories!

The Future

We believe that Faith & Play stories are a vital tool for sharing who we are as Friends and nurturing the spiritual development of children. Our vision is to continue to share Faith & Play stories with Friends through workshops, trainings and story experiences, to add more stories to the growing collection, and to support our communities of practice. We invite you to join us on this important and Spirit-led journey!

We are storytellers, artists, teachers, historians, editors, and faithful Friends. The collaborative work we do together continues to feel Spirit-led and full of energy.

Current members of the Trustees group: 

Connie Adams is a member of Heartland Friends Meeting in Wichita, KS. She is a trained Godly Play and Faith & Play storyteller, and has used both since 2011 in First Day School and at Wichita Friends School’s weekly Godly Play enrichment class. Since the Friends school serves children 2 ½ years old through third grade, a primary focus has been adapting story language so it is accessible to very young children. She has also framed some early childhood stories in Faith & Play style, adding the “playing with” and “wondering” components that deepen the stories for Littles. Connie shares: “I love how these stories give children a path to feel close to that of God in themselves.  I think that is why Littles and Young Friends love the stories so much. The stories take them to a sacred space that is within.”

Megan Hegenbarth, a member of Centre Monthly Meeting in Centreville, DE, joined the Faith & Play Group in 2009. She is a trained and practicing Godly Play and Faith & Play storyteller, and for many years, taught First Day School. She currently tells Faith & Play stories at the beginning of three meetings for worship each year for 6th-8th graders at Wilmington Friends School. She also regularly tells Faith & Play stories during her 10th-grade Quakerism class. She appreciates the depth the wonder questions bring to class, allowing the students to open up in a different way, giving them a safe space to ask their big questions and to share their innermost thoughts and beliefs. She believes that Faith & Play stories encourage rich wisdom for all participants of all ages, including the storyteller.

Guinevere Lindley Janes is a Member-at-Large of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Growing up under the care of Storrs Friends Meeting (New England Yearly Meeting), she attended Young Friends gatherings which she credits as the inspiration for becoming a youth religious education teacher and training to become a Faith & Play practitioner. Guinevere graduated from Earlham College in 1997 with a B.A. in History, studying abroad in Ghana, West Africa. Her personal essay on migraine disease is published in an anthology on invisible disability and she believes in working to create spaces and gatherings that are inclusive for Friends of all ages and abilities. Currently, Guinevere serves the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting community as a member of the Ministry and Care Committee.

Margo Inglis Lehman has been part of the Sandy Spring (MD) Monthly Meeting community since childhood. She recently retired from Baltimore Yearly Meeting after nearly 20 years’ service as staff and in various volunteer roles. She attended BYM’s Catoctin Quaker Camp as a camper, as staff, and later as a parent volunteer. This camp experience moved her to search for a way to bring the organic spiritual life that is the Quaker Camp experience into the First Day School (FDS) classroom. After being trained as a Godly Play / Faith & Play storyteller, Margo realized she had found the “campfire” for her classroom! She joined the Faith & Play Leadership Group in 2012 and currently serves as Treasurer of the corporation. Margo is a practicing artist and when she’s not teaching FDS, she can be found happily painting outdoors or in her studio.

Ann Pettigrew Nunes, a member of Wilton Quaker Meeting, (Wilton, CT), now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and attends Cincinnati Friends Meeting. Ann is a former teacher who spent many years working at UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, on maternal and reproductive health programs as well as with international NGOs in Africa, the Arab States, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Ann was trained as a Faith & Play storyteller in 2017 and often told stories at home, in her Meeting, Quarter, at NYYM and at the UN before moving to Ohio. She is now sharing Faith & Play stories with Cincinnati Friends and is eager to help foster the growing Faith & Play community of practice. Ann speaks several languages, including Spanish and French.

Candace Shattuck has been part of Faith & Play since its inception in 2005. She brings to the group not only writing skills (her first love) and managerial experience, but also a deep interest in spirituality, in Quaker history, and theology. Candace has been a member of Third Haven Monthly Meeting in Easton, MD, for over 25 years. She recently moved to Seattle, WA to live near her daughter and family, bringing with her the hope of nurturing growth of Faith & Play in the Pacific Northwest. She currently serves as Clerk of Faith & Play Stories.

David Wakeley, a member of Centre Monthly Meeting in Centreville, DE, joined the Faith & Play Group in 2011. He is a trained and practicing Godly Play and Faith & Play storyteller, and for many years has used both to teach First Day School. David was first drawn to the simple aesthetic beauty of Godly Play stories and became inspired to create materials for Faith and Play. His creative background helps guide the group through artistic and story design problem solving. Recently, David began training as an interfaith chaplain following a leading to attend to the spiritual needs of children in crisis. As part of his training, David is exploring how stories can be used to create a sacred space for children to make meaning of and to give voice to the existential questions they face while in distress.

Sallie Welte is a retired wildlife veterinarian with a specialty in oil spill response and the rehabilitation of native wild birds, and a background in environmental education. She has been involved with Faith & Play since 2009, both as a member of the leadership group and as a First Day School teacher at Goshen Meeting in West Chester, PA. Also trained as a Montessori teacher, she brings both organizational skills and a love for materials to our work. “I am renewed by the work we do together, in the patient nurturing of a leading to its full expression in story.” Her skills as Recording Secretary have been critical to our work.

Director of Communication and Training:

Melinda Wenner Bradley, a member of West Chester (PA) Meeting, served as clerk of the Faith & Play Group from its founding in 2005 to 2018. Melinda has been a licensed Godly Play Trainer since 2010 and serves as the Director of Communications and Training for Faith & Play Stories. She has shared Godly Play and Faith & Play stories in children’s programs, intergenerational worship, school classrooms, teacher workshops, international gatherings, and trainings across the US and in Peru, England, Kenya and New Zealand. Through her teaching ministry, Melinda encourages Friends to shift religious formation away from scholastic models and toward experiential, belonging-focused ways of being with children and inviting them into spiritual community with all ages. The Godly Play method and stories, and for Friends the Faith & Play stories, are vital resources for making that change and nurturing growth in Quaker communities. She is also a co-founder of the Quaker Religious Education Collaborative and serves on that organization’s Steering Circle. What she most enjoys is being in a circle on the floor with children, wondering together.

Godly Play is a collection of stories and a particular method for sharing those stories developed by Episcopal priest Dr. Jerome Berryman as a way to bring Bible stories and Christian faith formation to children. The Montessori-influenced method includes both a written script and visual materials to help tell the story. All stories conclude with open-ended questions that invite wonder and reflection. Participants are invited into a time for individual response to the story after the communal response of wondering together. This is what we mean by “Godly Play method.”

Over time, the Godly Play collection grew to eight volumes of stories, divided into three different genres: sacred stories (Old Testament), parables of Jesus (New Testament), and liturgical action lessons of the Episcopal tradition. Friends found this storytelling method particularly Quaker-friendly in that it left room for individual experience and continuing revelation in exploring the Bible stories with children.

In 2005, a group of Quakers attended a Godly Play training and were so enthusiastic about the possibilities of telling Quaker stories using this method that, with the blessing of the Godly Play Foundation, they began drafting the stories that became Faith & Play.

Faith & Play stories are written in the manner of Godly Play, and are meant to be a companion for Friends using Godly Play. Quakers do not use the liturgical action lessons in the Godly Play collection. Faith & Play stories are the voice of our faith, practice, and witness.

Both Godly Play and Faith & Play stories are best shared by storytellers who have learned about the methodology, the theology of childhood, and classroom management strategies from a Quaker trainer. Since 2010, training to use Faith & Play and Godly Play stories has been offered to Friends by Quakers who are licensed trainers with the Godly Play Foundation. This opens for Friends a library of experiential stories available for religious education programs.