Den heliga leken. Om lekkyrkan som en väg till gudstjänstfirande för barn i Svenska kyrkan idag

Sammanfattning: In 1915 Maria Montessori and Anna Maccheroni built the first Children’s Chapel in Barcelona. Everything in the chapel was in the right size and height for a child. In this chapel the children learnt liturgy and prepeard themselves for the life in the Church through doing. In 2003 the first Swedish play church was built at Kastlösa Stiftsgård on the initiative of Karin Uddling. She had studied Montessori and been inspired by her Children’s Chapels. Today there are at least 10 play churches in Sweden, most of them inspired by the play church at Kastlösa Stiftsgård. The aim of this thesis is to find out how these play churches can help children to actively take part in the worship in the Church of Sweden today. I am doing this through the study of: children and worship in the Church of Sweden, children’s play, the Montessori method and play churches in Sweden. The biggest part of the essay is built upon literature studies. The exception is the chapter about play churches in Sweden, which is built upon surveys and a participant observation. The play church is a place where play and worship meet each other. In order for the play church to be a help for children to actively take part in the worship the play in it should be a developmental play in which the material is used in the right way. It is also important that the worship is celebrated in such a way that children are welcomed to take part in it. The play in the play chuch has to have a dimension of worship, and the worship in the church has to have a dimension of play.