Above: Denise Utter of Vibrant Faith starts the day with energy and enthusiasm.
Diocese hosts workshop with nationally renowned speaker
By Dc. Tom Cuskey, editor and Tami S. Scott, associate editor
The gathering was focused on one theme: What does family catechesis mean?
That’s the question that was posed to Andrea Slaven as she and her team prepared to welcome faith formation leaders from around the diocese to a workshop on envisioning how we bring the Good News to the pews – then back to our homes.
Slaven, director of the Diocesan Office of Child and Family Catechesis, said she believes the answer lies in “our families understanding who they are as missionary disciples and recognizing their own holiness – that they’re already holy.”
Andrea Slaven, director of Child and Family Catechesis, welcomes attendees.
This message, she said, is meant for parents and parish leaders who support these families to understand what that holiness looks like in relationship to the church and their relationship with God and Jesus.
“How are families connecting their faith at home?” Slaven asked. “[What’s] their prayer life at home?”
We may think of faith formation as instruction in a classroom, but it’s much more than that. It begins and continues at home.
“The parish did the grade level thing,” said Slaven, speaking of previous models of teaching the faith to our young people. “We also had more of a culture where the families were already engaged with their faith, and the culture was that the families went to church … but even then the families didn’t always know how to celebrate their faith in the home all the time.”
To help parish leaders and teachers in their efforts to support and accompany families on their faith journey, Slaven’s office hosted “Envisioning the Future of Faith Formation Together,” a workshop recently held at Pope John XXIII Church in Liverpool with Denise Utter, a nationally renowned speaker, writer and coach. Utter helps groups investigate new possibilities in engaging families and students.
About 60 parish formation leaders registered for the class, the largest turnout Denise has had for a local workshop.
“Everybody’s looking at how they can reimagine faith formation today,” Utter said. “All the statistics, all the research, is telling us what we’re [currently] doing isn’t working.”
Turnout for the workshop exceeded expectations.
Twenty years ago, Utter was a parish formation leader looking for new ways not to make faith just a once-a-week lesson, but part of a family way of life. From the parish, she moved to the diocesan level, working with other parishes before becoming a consultant and master teacher with Vibrant Faith, a group that presents workshops, training and more across the country. She holds a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in pastoral studies. Her education hasn’t stopped there.
“Since [I’ve] been working with parishes around the country, you learn from them, as they’re doing it, just paying attention to what they’re doing, and then sharing it with others,” she said. “There’s some really innovative stuff happening out there.”
Utter said formation leaders are learning that the better approach today is more about relationships than programs. “So how do they walk with families to do this?” She added that many parents today just drop off their kids for classes, much like their parents did with them when they were young. But times are different now. “The parents used to be involved in [the] community and now [they’re] not so engaged. So how do we engage them?”
Faith formation leaders today have choices to try to do just that. Utter’s presentation included four different models. “But my personal favorite is really to get parents in where they can be talking with other parents,” she said. “I’m finding that parents are so hungry for connection, that they’re so isolated … giving them opportunities to talk with each other about raising their kids. If we put the conversation not where they are in their faith, but about their children, they begin to open up [in] the conversations. They learn from each other.”
Kathleen Hamilton is a junior high youth minister at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Endicott. Her familiarity with Utter’s approach led her to attend the workshop. “I think she’s just got a really great message to share with us about family catechesis,” she said.
Hamilton’s parish has already done some family catechesis and she wanted to learn more.
“About four times a year, I bring the families together with a catechetical program,” she said, adding that an element of joining in a community service project has been introduced to the group and it’s showing benefits. “So, I’m hoping that today I get more ideas on how to keep inviting them into our faith, into the church.”
That was also James Nolan’s goal in attending. The faith formation director at Annunciation Parish in Clark Mills said it’s an ongoing effort to diversify and find new ways to engage students and families. “I think probably the greatest challenge is bringing [in] the generation of parents, to get them reinvigorated by bringing their own children to the church. And, and then the catechesis, we hope.”
Slaven was very happy with the turnout for the workshop and was confident that attendees would find something to integrate into their programs to bring new life to the communities. It always goes back to basics.
“It’s not necessarily about instruction, right? It’s about living a holy life,” she said, adding that family means more when Christ is at the center. “[A] vocation as parents is a gift from God, it’s a calling from God. It means, meet them where they are to help them grow in their faith.”
