Pilgrim's Progress in the NB woods

Young children tackle Christian classic

By Mari Robertson

Hopeful (Isaac Edward) pulls Christian (Johnnie Matheson) from the Slough of Despond in a scene from Pilgrim’s Progress. Photo: Sue Careless“Will you tell us how to get into your country from our world?” asks Lucy in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia.  During the past two St. Michael's Youth Conferences (Atlantic) I acted as instructor to the “House Kids”, the children (ages four to twelve) of staff and teachers. Together with Lucy, we have explored this question through engaging Christian allegory.

Last year, in a short dramatic piece, they re-enacted  Eustace's discovery in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that he was buried deep inside the skin of a dragon. The actor playing Aslan stripped off multiple layers of gold and green fabric to reveal the human underneath and toss him into the deep pool to complete his rebirth as a boy. The House Kids also constructed a papier maché dragon which was symbolically transformed into a pinata and ripped open to reveal the goodness inside.  

This year, the House Kids (four boys) were challenged to bring John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress to life. Stories such as these were an important part of my own childhood and have remained with me as an adult as I contend with my own Hills of Difficulty and Giants of Despair, and meet figures of Help and Faithfulness along the way. Singing “He Who Would Valiant Be” in Church a couple of months before the Conference, it struck me that, like me, this group of boys would be able to imagine themselves as the hero Christian: getting into trouble, almost losing key possessions needed for the journey, making it to the Wicket Gate just in time as arrows came whizzing behind, defying the monster Apollyon and going over to the easy side of the fence only to be captured and imprisoned by a giant. 

I reread Bunyan in preparation, but also Helen Taylor's Little Pilgrim's Progress and a particularly helpful children's edition of the classic, Jean Watson's A Family Pilgrim's Progress with commentary and scriptural references.

Armed with a few ideas, past experience told me that the House Kids would guide our exploration just as they had done with Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Indeed, after an initial class introducing them to Christian's adventures and beginning a model of his journey from Destruction to the Celestial City, I was told by the children that one hour a day was not enough and we would meet earlier tomorrow!

When I showed up the agreed upon half-hour earlier the next day, the boys were already in the camp's Craft Shack and proudly showed me the finished clay sculpture of Christian, burden on back, floundering in the Slough of Despond.  Later that week they presented two short plays to the rest of the Conference. I confess here to directing them to my own favourite parts: the Hill of Salvation at the top of which Christian gazes on the Cross and feels his burden fall off and roll down into the open grave, and his final crossing of the river. Oh, and in order not to push my luck I let Christian get his armour and fight the dragon too.

The boys took their roles to heart as they portrayed Christian stepping into the deep rushing current of the river, but losing his footing and despairing as he remembers all the ways he has failed in his journey. Hopeful reminds him to look ahead to the Prince's Country and not to forget the signs and promises he has been given. Together, they join hands and cross the river where the King, the Prince and all the faithful pilgrims who have completed their journey are gathered waiting to welcome them.

Next year? The House Kids have requested a return to the world of Narnia, but I'm wondering how best to introduce them to the magical worlds of George MacDonald. My hope is that as these youngsters grow up, these stories will encourage and help them in their own journey to the Celestial City.

Marjorie Robertson is mother to a St. Michael's Conferee and a House Kid, and a member of St. Michael's Youth Conference director Kevin Stockall's parish, St. Paul's, Sackville, N.B. When not at home with family and horses, she teaches French Immersion in Amherst, N.S.