Intergenerational ministry to be among workshops

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
September 8, 2004

The Diocesan Ministries Conference this year will offer a range of workshops for people of the Diocese of Sioux City to attend.

This year's conference will be held in three different sessions at two sites in the diocese on Oct. 9 and 10.

Rather than two all-day sessions, this year three sessions will be available with the first being from 12:30 to 5 p.m., Oct. 9, at Pocahontas Catholic School in Pocahontas. People will have the chance to attend one of two sessions to be held Oct. 10 at Gehlen Catholic School - one from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. or an evening option from 5 to 9:30 p.m.

The Spiritual in Each Moment is the theme of the conference. A couple of the workshops will focus on the topic of intergenerational ministry.

Intergenerational ministry is a growing ministry in the church and involves all ages of parishioners in faith formation.

One workshop, "Casting the Net: Bringing in the Adult Catch," will be presented by Father Mike Tauke and Katie Pfiffner from St. Mary Parish in Waverly, Iowa, along with others from the Diocese of Sioux City.

Father Tauke has been a priest for 31 years in the Archdiocese of Dubuque and pastor at St. Mary Parish for five years. Pfiffner has been the director of faith formation at St. Mary's for four years and has coordinated the Generations of Faith process for two years. St. Mary's is building a new church facility to integrate the needs of a growing parish made up of many different generations and different communities.

The Diocesan Ministries Conference brochure noted that this workshop will explore how a parish can be inclusive of all ages in its faith formation process and illustrate how, as a parish, people can cast their net of faith to include people of all generations, ages and levels of faith development.

According to Pfiffner, the workshop will be centered around making adult faith formation the primary focus of the catechetical process and whole community catechesis in general. For example, they will look at what to do when everyone is there, and more specifically what to do when the adults are present.

"We would hope that they (attendees) would find a model out there that will bring adults and young people together learning about faith and changing not just the kids faith but also the adults' faith," said Father Tauke. "Parishes will have a different approach to dealing with faith formation."

Bishops' documents have been stating that adult faith formation needs to be primary, stated Pfiffner.

"This is one way to fulfill what the documents are telling us to do without creating a bunch of new programs," said Pfiffner. "They can build it into a new process that the whole parish participates in."

"Whole Community Catechesis: 101" will be another intergenerational ministry workshop presented at the conference. Bev Hurni, director of Adult and Family Ministries for the diocese, and Linda Anderson, director of Catechesis for the diocese will lead this workshop.

Anderson and Hurni recently completed the National Generations of Faith Training program. This workshop will help people find out what "all the buzz is about," how a parish and/or school can provide formation across the generations and design a unique program for a community's needs.

"It's the very basics of whole community catechesis," said Anderson. "Some people maybe haven't gone any further than just hearing some of the terminology, whether it be whole community catechesis, intergenerational ministry or whatever. We want to cover things like background, history and how to lay the groundwork so hopefully they will want to take it further."

Hurni noted that she hopes people attending the workshop will gain an understanding of some of the benefits of whole community catechesis.

"I think this is something that we are hearing evermore about," said Anderson. "It is really catching on around the country and in Canada, too. Even though you hear different terminology, it is referring to the same thing. It is life-long faith formation where you get all of the generations in a parish involved."

Conference brochures containing workshop and registration information have been sent to all parishes. The brochure and registration form is also available for downloading at the diocesan Web site - scdiocese.org. For more information call Sandi at (712) 233-7530.