First training session held Feb. 10 for Generations of Faith

By Melissa Kokenge, Globe staff writer
February 16, 2006

SIOUX CITY-The first of a series of three workshops for the Generations of Faith training session was held on Feb 10. It was offered to parish/school leaders for them to gain knowledge, skills, content and tools for creating a lifelong, intergenerational, whole church faith formation curriculum. Intergenerational ministry, also referred to as whole community catechesis or lifelong faith formation, centers on the concept that learning about one's faith should never stop.

"That is the starting point - to understand that concept and to get the vision, and understand how it can renew life for a parish," said Linda Anderson, director of catechesis.

The intended audience for this session was pastors, pastoral ministers, directors of religious education, youth ministers, liturgists, principals of Catholic schools, religion teachers, faith formation directors, adult formation teams, RCIA coordinators and catechists.

Organizers said with a good turnout, there seemed to be a lot accomplished. Many parishes and cluster parishes were in attendance. Everyone in the diocese was invited to participate.

"We were very pleased with the turnout; we had a number of parishes in the diocese represented," said Bev Hurni, director of the Office of Adult and Family Mministries.

A few of the participants included those from the cluster of Ida Grove and Holstein, Emmetsberg, Spirit Lake and about 10 others.

These festivals or intergenerational events invite all parishioners to participate in a gathering that usually includes a meal, prayer experience, age-appropriate faith formation lesson and some kind of activity such as a skit.

"They usually start out with a meal that brings people together and then they set the scene through some kind of large group process, everyone takes part in it," said Hurni.

The group process might be a worship service or a dramatization - there are many different things that they could do. They may continue in this group for a while or they might break up into smaller groups by age. In the end, they all come back and share with each other what they have learned. It is not just the children learning, adults learn and see things in new ways.

For this initial training session, Mariette Martineau, project coordinator for Generations of Faith was one of the main speakers. Her main message for this first session in the series was on developing a vision. One of the things Martineau talked about was how the church is today and how with a generation of 50 percent post Vatican II, people born after 1961, people have a different experience with religion verses people who are born pre Vatican II.

Father Edward Girres and Sister Theresa Engel, who serve the Webster County Team Parishes, helped Martineau out in the afternoon.

"Father Girres and Sister Engel presented more of the direct experience from Webster County, and kind of put flesh on the vision," said Hurni.

Linda Anderson, director of catechesis for the diocese, said the advantage of having these people from the diocese help with the training let others know that this is a viable option for ministry.

"It was good to hear that someone in our diocese is doing this, verses someone in Los Angeles or Connecticut. Somebody is doing it and working at it in our diocese. I think that was a real advantage. They were able speak about what they were doing, so no one could say, 'Oh, that is not going to work here,'" said Anderson.

As of last summer, it was estimated that about 300 parish programs in the country offer intergenerational ministry as its primary faith formation/religious education program. It is estimated that another 1,400 parishes offer some type of blended program, which is traditional education classes coupled with intergenerational ministry programming.

In March, they will work on implementation plans to get their vision started, and in May they will work on support. Parishes who went to the session were asked to think about and brainstorm how they could do this in their own parish, and they will discuss their ideas when they meet in March.