The Sacred Canopy provides a unique story-based approach to nurturing children and youth with the sacred stories and spiritual practices of their tradition.
- Archetypal storytelling The Sacred Canopy method approaches the stories of Jesus and the early church as archetypes of the human experience. This is to say the stories of Jesus and his followers are as much stories about ourselves – who we are, our deepest struggles, our longing for wholeness and inclusion, and the pathway through suffering and loss that we are invited to walk.
- A relational universe The Sacred Canopy method invites participants to trust the relational goodness of the Ground of all Being, however that might be named (God, Jesus, Divine Love etc.) . In the context of the Christian tradition the materials emphasize a relational Jesus, human in every way yet with a grounding in God/Spirit that makes his presence safe as a place to seek refuge and to undergo conversion and spiritual growth.
- Perennial Tradition “For something to be true somewhere it must be true everywhere.” We look for truth that is confirmed by other religious and philosophical traditions, human experience and the psyche.
- A universal Christ Sacred Canopy materials distinguish the resurrected Christ from the person of Jesus. When Jesus passed through the narrows of death without creating any more victims he emerged on the other side as a visible sign of the unitive presence at the centre of all living things.
- Spiritual practises (eg. mindfulness and prayer) that nurture a relational connection to Jesus and an awakening to the universal Christ are important elements of the Sacred Canopy method.
- Whole-body curriculum insists on an integration through learning of a young person’s mind, body and emotional life. “Nothing is in the intellect that didn’t come through the senses.”