Webster County Team Parishes revamp religious education to involve all generations

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
September 16, 2004

FORT DODGE - The Webster County Team Parishes are planning something new this year for their religious education program. Instead of having individual classes every Wednesday evening, there will be monthly Intergenerational Faith Festivals October through May.

The cluster had four Faith Festivals last year and thought this would be an effective way to get everyone involved. This year there will be eight Faith Festivals focusing on the sacraments and other parts of the Catholic faith.

"We are having generations of faith enacted completely this year," said Sheryl Price, one DRE for the Webster County Parishes. "That involves two Faith Festivals a month. The religious education students will be divided in half. Half will come one Wednesday night and half will come another Wednesday night."

The evenings will begin at 5 p.m. with a half-hour supper. The programming begins at 6:15 p.m. and goes until 8:30 p.m. The evening starts with all age groups together. When the programming starts, those attending are split into different age groups.

"At some points during the different Faith Festivals, we will have different generations coming together for certain topics to share even more intergenerationally," said Price.

The students receiving reconciliation and first Communion will attend three separate classes on the third Wednesday of the month with two catechists. They will also have three at home lessons with their parents.

"I think we have to remember that our community isn't just us at home or just coming to church, it is to go out and spread the word like Jesus did," said Price. "We are all involved together. Everybody has something important to share. Our kids can see the older generations there."

The students receiving confirmation through the religious education program will have regular classes each month after attending the first Faith Festival for the month.

"It is important that the parents are there so they can take it back to the home," said Price. "That is where we would really like to see a transition - back into the home and having parents as first teachers."

A parent comes to the Faith Festival with the students who are in kindergarten through fourth grade. The elementary students are on their own and parents can go to the adult sessions. The ninth graders are the only high school age students that are required to attend the Faith Festivals as part of their religious education classes. Other high school age students are encouraged to come with their families to the festivals.

"We have some attendance that we need to work on with the older high school students," said Price. "We've always confirmed right at ninth grade and they have kind of fallen away. We are working with our youth ministry program, Youth KICKS, on trying to get more kids involved in that."

Price, along with Sister Margaret Kruse and the four priests in the Webster County Team Parishes, do the planning for the Faith Festivals and there are 32 catechists that help carry out the plan.

"We knew we were heading this way," said Price. "We did four Faith Festivals last year, and we still had regular classes. It was getting harder to get catechists and volunteers to do both. We are trying to get everyone together more as a community. We decided that to be more united and to be able to run one good program, instead of trying to run two programs at the same time, would be more beneficial for the people."