Role playing

We have a dress up bin that the boys play with regularly. Usually they are knights, or star wars characters, or policemen, or firefighters. But this time? This time they recreated church! Jonathan dressed himself up as a priest, complete with vestments.



He arranged our table bench and piano bench into pews and an altar rail, invited the younger boys to come to church, and served them "communion" (crackers and water).



He was actually very good at it, too!

Thomas started out playing Josiah's Dad, keeping him in line on the pew! Later he switched roles, retrieved a bath toy boat, and installed himself as the boat boy. :)



In real life, Jonathan is scheduled to serve for the first time as an acolyte (in the position of boat boy!) on the first two Sundays of August. He is very excited.

Pretend play is a kind of practice for reality, a trying on of roles and experimenting with your place in the story of life. I love that the boys are exploring this role along with the others.

Common Cause

In the midst of lots of bad, really bad, and even worse news from the Episcopal church lately, there is one really encouraging thing happening. Have you heard of the Common Cause Partnership? It hasn't been nearly as well publicized as the recent House of Bishops meeting, but in my view it is far more important. It is a partnership of nearly all of the splinter Anglican groups, joining together with the intent to create a truly orthodox, unified, Anglican option in America. This kind of large-scale reunification is (to my knowledge) unprecedented. As Jessica said, "Whoever heard of an anti-schism?"

My well-spoken husband wrote about it today, so I shall now refer you to him. And do click through his links and read the actual text of the Common Cause. You'll be blown away.