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April 05, 2008

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Preston

Yeah, and some guy named Joe Walker has an article in it.

On you topic - I'm seeing two sets of grandparents bringing grandchildren to church. We baptized two on the Baptism of our Lord.

They're beginning to say - fine, you don't want to bring the grandkids to church, we will! And the parents don't mind at all. I think they may like to sleep in . . .

It may be one avenue of renewal for us.

Malcolm+

Joe, loved your article. It reflects an earlier discussion here about chrches that are focussed imward and those focussed outward.

With you permission, I will link to it from simplemassingpriest.

I was less impressed with teh article on the Catechism.

Certainly a Catechism is a useful resource, but I have never been a big fan of memorization as a learning technique. I'm less concerned that a candidate can recite the Apostle's Creed than that s/he understands it (as they are able) and believes it.

Paedagogically, the Q&A format of a Catechism is very useful. Memorizing it is . . . less so.

joseph

Preston - I think we are seeing more and more of that trend. I find myself in the middle of a generation whose parents still have a church connection, but we ourselves (as a demographic group) are much less inclined. I think there is a greater role for grandparents to play in faith formation of their grandkids, especially if the parents themselves are not inclined to put any emphasis on faith. I know in my own parish I would like to seek ways to encourage our faithful grandparents in this kind of ministry to and with their grandkids.

Malcolm - I hear what you are saying about the limited role of memorization. It is not a substitute for authentic Christian formation. I think it a helpful thing for certain ages and stages, although I'm no expert on didactic processes or educational techniques.

As a side note, one of the great laments I've heard (and uttered) is materials/formation stuff around Confirmation - a place where we hope and want people to claim a living faith. I've seen such a variety (some good, some bad, some ugly) of practices around the prep part of Confirmation. Perhaps this is where the Catechumenate stuff needs to look...

Malcolm+

WRT "materials/formation stuff around Confirmation" -

I don't claim this is necessarily any great shakes, but here is how I approached it:

http://stjamesreginaconfirmation.blogspot.com/

There are good things out there. One just needs to find them. I won't argue that my list of links was comprehensive - I was adding things as I stumbled across them right to the very end.

The Fr. Matthew and Fr. Steve YouTube pages were both very good. The material was, to my mind, pretty solid, and the presentation was engaging and accessible. Some of the kids talked for weeks afterwards about Fr. Matthew "throwing the baby down the aisle" in his video about baptism. It is unfortunate that the "Father Matthew Presents the Sacraments" was only about half finished.

joseph

Thanks for the links, Malcolm. Nice shades in the photo, btw! It's helpful to be able to see what some others are doing, and to see what other resources are out there to be used.

Malcolm+

For what it's worth, the older siblings of some of the candidates were actually jealous that their confirmation preparation hadn't been done like this. And I even heard complaints from some senior citizens that they never got bunnyhugs either.

Malcolm+

http://simplemassingpriest.blogspot.com/2008/04/mission-or-maintenance.html

cpm

I think we are losing sight of Joe's original post which was to promote that final publication which is The Anglican Planet.

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  • Copyright Rev. Joseph Walker, St Timothy's Anglican Church

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