ALL ARE WELCOME...Whole Community Catechesis

By Sister Rita Wenzlick, OP
Director, Office of Pastoral Planning

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Is your parish looking for an opportunity to catechize its entire community at once? If so, read on. You can learn about programs that two of our parishes have employed to do just that.

At St. Mary on the Lake at Manitou Beach in Lenawee County, intergenerational programs are a common sight almost any time of the year. The people there pride themselves on being a family-centered parish where the principal aim is to have all feel part of an extended family.

During the winter, it’s a relatively small parish with some 130 families enrolled. At that time, the intergenerational activity takes place following the liturgy on the second Sunday of each month, with all age groups gathering for a group prayer and various “ice breaker” events. In the summertime, the extended family at St. Mary almost triples in size. That’s when the community catechesis program grows accordingly – particularly in June when it becomes the focal point of a week-long themed event, “Summer Evenings at the Lake.”

The co-directors of religious education, Linda Loveland and Denise Sibrt, along with catechists and the Education Commission, conceive the theme and then plan an exciting five-day event which runs from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Each evening opens with children, teens and adults gathering for a pot luck supper. The parish offers the main dish and the participants bring the trimmings: vegetables, salads and desserts.

Following dinner and clean up, the evening program begins with prayer and a scripture story for the entire group. The younger participants are then divided into appropriate age groupings that range from preschool to junior high. The high school youth serve as teacher assistants. For the rest of the evening, each group rotates through various pre-planned activities. They have 20-minute sessions on music, games, arts and crafts, and drama. Before going home, everyone re-convenes and the children take turns recounting their experiences of that evening for the entire assembly.

According to Jean Schaub, Pastoral Coordinator at St. Mary, the size of the group can vary from 40 to 80 people. “Each one of the activities is related to the scriptural experience that opens the evening. We keep the sessions at about 20 minutes because that seems to fit the attention span of the children. Things move along pretty quickly and no one gets bored.”

While the youngsters are engaged in their various activities, there is a rich and comprehensive adult faith formation program for the rest. By the end of the week, the catechists, parents, and other adults have experienced faith enrichment with an added benefit. If they wish to do so, they receive credit for completion of five of the topics required for diocesan catechist certification. At the same time, it’s not all work and no play for the adults; they end each evening in one of the young people’s activity areas.

“We could have this program any time during the summer,” says Jean, “but it makes more sense to do it in June because it’s the beginning of the season and, if there are any newcomers joining, it’s a great way for them to get connected to the rest of the parish community quickly.”

The parish communicates with the summertime members at their year-round homes to let them know what will be coming up for “Summer Evenings at the Lake” when they arrive.

In 2004, the program landed a one-time Family Ministry Minigrant from the diocese to help accomplish the parish objective of providing an opportunity for families and individuals of all ages within the parish and community to share a comprehensive Christian experience through prayer, music, fellowship and education.

Jean acknowledges that the size of the parish lends itself to whole community catechesis as heralded by Bill Huebsch, noted author and conference presenter on this subject. “If we had a parish with 300 children, involving their parents would make the group size a bit unwieldy,” she says. “We want the children and adults to be able to discuss a shared experience… to be on the same page. With each age group doing something different, it’s difficult to relate that later when the family reconnects.”

St. Mary on the Lake has been featuring this event for several years now and, often the scenes reflect great creativity. In 2003, the theme was “Bible Adventures,” and included an event from each of the four gospels and one from the Acts of the Apostles. To open the evening, the children went back in time to the New Testament era through the “time tunnel” in the church yard. The “tunnel” was a structure of 2x4s encased in white sheeting material wrapped in scrolling Christmas lights. When the children came out the other end, there were the adults and teens garbed in period costumes ready to involve the children in that evening’s adventure.

2004 was the year of the summer Olympics and that provided a thematic tie-in for proclaiming Jesus Christ and His message. It was called “Son Games: VBS of Champions.” To carry the theme through, each of the age groupings became a team. The teams then developed their own flags and logos, and marched in together for the opening and closing ceremonies. This year, “Summer Evenings at the Lake” was given over to activities related to celebrating the 50th Jubilee of St. Mary on the Lake.

This out-of-the-box creativity is also the hallmark of the intergenerational programs at Saint Mary Parish in Flint. Drawing from a different wellspring, the small Flint parish is literally “FIREd”up. “FIRE” is the acronym for Family Intergenerational Religious Education – a model and methodology adopted and adapted by Saint Mary from Ligouri, the Catholic publishing house in Missouri.

The program’s author, Dr. Kathleen O’Connell Chesto, sees FIRE as a “…more effective way of sharing religious truths and of developing communities.” It’s a multi-year undertaking to fashion “a community where faith can be explored, deepened, and celebrated while exploring our reasons for believing.” It also studies “…the way we respond to the God in whom we believe.” Finally, it includes elements that examine the historical origins of our belief and the realities of that belief.

The program’s underpinning, in addition to the Bible and Catechism, is the FIRE Program Manual from Ligouri. The method of presentation, however, is left to the parish because, as the Ligouri writer points out in the Introduction, “…you will know far better what is needed in your group and what works best for your community.” That leaves lots of room for local creativity and the parishioners of St. Mary take full advantage of the opportunity to employ spontaneity and imagination to get the messages across.

Now in its fourth year at the Flint parish, FIRE has an enthusiastic supporter in Sister Mary Ann McCarron, Pastoral Associate. “It is a phenomenal program that I feel is far superior to the more traditional classroom offerings. We present the same basic information as in most religious education programs but there are important differences. First, because we act it out, that adds the element of fun to the learning process. Second, ours isn’t a program where the adults just drop the children off and pick them up again at the end. Everyone participates – the entire community of church.”

The size of that participation will vary, but usually the sessions are well attended with as many as 40 people interacting in a program. Considering there are 280 families enrolled in the parish, that’s an impressive turnout. The three-hour program is offered monthly on a Sunday from September through May with a break in December. It begins with prayer, then lunch which is followed by a session. There’s a break for dessert before another session and a concluding prayer before dismissal.

Parishioners who are enrolled in the sacramental preparation programs at Saint Mary are asked to participate in FIRE. Attesting to the popularity of its approach, Sr. Mary Ann notes that very often these participants return the next year even though their sacramental preparations are completed.

Sr. Mary Ann lavishes praise on the four women parishioners who work with her in planning the sessions. She credits their imagination and creativity with giving the program a new impetus every year. She also credits the participants, themselves, because they take a very active hand in deciding how the sessions will be dramatized. Frequently, this results in some very effective, impromptu theatre.

“We try to demonstrate the humanism,” says Sr. Mary Ann. “The people depicted in the dramatizations were real people and we work to get that across. In one scene, we had two women in costume play the roles of Moses’ mothers – one his natural mother and the other Pharaoh’s daughter – and had them share their feelings about him and everything that happened to him during his life. Those in attendance interacted with the two women and a very complete picture of Moses’ life was the result.”

Of all the skits they have staged, probably there are two that best demonstrate the creativity the Flint folks bring to FIRE. One was about Heavenly Manna and the other about the Crowning of David, the King.

Manna is not that easy to come by these days, but meringue served up on radicchio lettuce fit the bill just fine.

To hear Sr. Mary Ann tell it, “Everyone was told to eat the manna in a hurry because the sun was coming up. To get that point across to the ‘diners,’ someone came along with a cardboard sun on a stick, and kept raising it higher and higher. It was amazing to see grown men get into the spirit of the event by gobbling up the meringue faster and faster!” The quail, which were the Israelites’ dinner meal, were represented by bird-shaped paper airplanes that were tossed at the participants.

The crowning of David turned out to be a truly family affair. One FIRE family had a pre-teen son and the group picked him to play David. He arrived for his anointing in a chariot – of sorts. To those not with the program, David’s vehicle might have looked like a large, wheeled trash container. Not so to the participants. It was a chariot! Everyone hailed David with waving palms, etc., and called his name. His biological sister took a small jar of salad oil and poured it over his head, thus anointing him king.

Using good drama – with a little creativity – makes any scripture story more meaningful, Sister explains. “After the dramatization, we always have a lively discussion period centered around how the subject matter relates to the participants in 2006. We try to have them realize that God is as real in their lives today as He was in the events we’ve dramatized.”

As we noted earlier, Sr. Mary Ann is a big booster of FIRE. “I have liked this program since I first heard about it from another DRE. After being in schools for 25 years, I know that action along with information is far more effective than merely using a book. This is a wonderful way to share our faith.”

When it comes to the resources required, both the Manitou Beach and the Flint parishes employ the usual assortment of handouts and homework reading assignments. Beyond that, a little bit of costuming and some “make do” sets can help. Clearly, however, the only limits on success with these kinds of programs are the enthusiasms and the scopes of the imaginations of the people devising the events.

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Persons to Contact:
Jean Schaub
Pastoral Coordinator
Saint Mary on the Lake Catholic Church
450 Manitou Road
Manitou Beach, MI 492
Phone: 517-547-7496
e-mail: stmary@tc3net.com

Sister Mary Ann McCarron, SSJ
Pastoral Associate
Saint Mary Parish
2500 North Franklin Street
Flint, MI 48506
Phone: 810-232-4012