|
Tri-parish faith formation: More resources, volunteers, funding |
|
|
|
By Maria Wiering
|
|
Tuesday, 24 August 2010 |
On most Wednesday nights during the school year, kids from first to 10th grade from three parishes meet at the Shakopee Catholic Education Center for faith formation classes.
A parishioner at St. Mark in Shakopee, Doug Schleif teaches faith formation in the program his parish shares with nearby St. Mary in Shakopee and St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown. Photo by Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit
The parishes — St. Mark and St. Mary in Shakopee and St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown — are among several in the archdiocese that are not all clustered but share a program.
St. Mary and St. Mary of the Purification are clustered; St. Mark is not.
Yet, the three Shakopee parishes have been sharing a faith formation
program for so long that the collaboration doesn’t feel unusual,
parishioners say. It’s all most of them have ever known, and they’ve
known it to work well.
“There are a wealth of gifts out there when consolidating, and when
merging, and when sharing,” said Janelle Heikkila, the program’s
director.
After the announcement of the Strategic Plan for Parishes Oct. 16-17,
all parishes will be encouraged to find new ways to collaborate,
including on faith formation and other programing, said Jim
Lundholm-Eades, a member of the task force which crafted plan
recommendations for Archbishop John Nienstedt.
More to offer
Before any of the three parishes shared a pastor, St. Mark, St. Mary and
St. Mary of the Purification united their schools in 1970 to conserve
resources and better serve the community. The faith formation program
followed the school’s lead and consolidated five years later. In 2004,
the parishes constructed a new building for the school and faith
formation programs.
St. Mary and St. Mark are located in the heart of Shakopee. St. Mary of the Purification is a few miles away in rural Marystown.
The program’s 35-year success is aided by the fact that all the parishes
are basically in the same city, said Father Peter Wittman, pastor of
St. Mary in Shakopee and St. Mary of the Purification in Marystown.
People who are members of the three different parishes could live on the
same block, he added.
The Shakopee Catholic Education Center offers three different times for
faith formation on Wednesday evenings: 4:30 p.m. for grades 1 through 5;
6 p.m. for grades 7 and 8; and 7:30 p.m. for students in grades 9 and
10, who are preparing for confirmation.
In an effort to meet parishioners’ needs, classes are also offered on
Sunday evenings, or on a twice-monthly (opposed to weekly) schedule.
About 500 kids participate in the program, Heikkila said. Most of them
attend the area’s public schools, like Pearson Elementary, where St.
Mark parishioner Doug Schleif, 49, is principal.
Schleif has taught in the faith formation program for five years, and the volunteer work has been a “natural fit,” he said.
Schleif likes the shared faith formation program, he said, naming better funding and volunteer resources as important benefits.
It also allows the program to survive, he said. “I don’t think one
[Shakopee] parish is big enough to support a program,” he said.
In Shakopee’s case, this is due in part to large enrollment at Shakopee
Area Catholic School, whose students attend faith formation classes in
school and generally do not participate in the faith formation programs
until they’re preparing for confirmation.
“[With] any community the size of Shakopee that has a Catholic school,
it’s hard to keep that . . . faith formation component thriving,”
Schleif said.
Large, and growing
But thrive it has. The number of students enrolled in the program is growing, Heikkila said.
The program itself is also expanding. Two years ago, the parishes
revived summer Bible school for pre-kindergarten to fourth-grade
children. The first year drew 60 children; this year drew 150. The
parishes had been without a program for about 10 years, said St. Mark
parishioner Jennifer Klecker.
Klecker, 37, tried for several years to revive the summer Bible school
before she was successful, she said. Without a program in Shakopee, she
drove her two daughters to Pax Christi in Eden Prairie to attend Bible
school.
“I thought it was ridiculous that we had three parishes and nothing was happening here in town,” she said.
After first trying to start something at her own parish, Klecker sought
support from the tri-parish faith formation program, which led to its
2009 launch.
“There’s a wealth of information when you have so many people together,”
she said. “[There’s] fun and excitement in the community coming
together.”
Klecker also teaches second-grade faith formation with her husband Jeff.
Together, they prepare eight to 10 students for the sacraments of
reconciliation and first Communion.
Teaching students from the three parishes provides an opportunity to
talk about the different ways parishes might do things within their
liturgies, she said.
Dave Siwek, 47, teaches a confirmation class, and he’s glad to see
students from different parishes in the same classroom, he said. He
likens it to the 1985 movie “The Breakfast Club,” in which students who
otherwise wouldn’t socialize with one another form new relationships.
Forming community
The tri-parishes’ confirmation students engage in conversation and work
on projects together that they likely would not otherwise, said Siwek,
who attends St. Mark.
“The idea of what Shakopee is, and [what] the faith formation program
and the confirmation program is, [is] to be part of the community,” he
said.
The shared program also eases scheduling and allows the parishes to
share staff, Siwek added. And with two priests in the three parishes,
one is usually available to attend an event, which isn’t always the case
in a single parish with a single priest, he added.
Still, communication and resistance to change continue to be challenges to the tri-parish faith formation program, Schleif said.
As a remedy, it helps to have the parishes’ pastors and leadership agree
on what faith formation is and should look like before a program gets
underway, Heikkila said. In this consolidation, Father Wittman oversees
the school, and Father Tim Norris, St. Mark’s pastor, oversees faith
formation.
It may be difficult for parishes facing a similar program consolidation
to let go of control, especially if one parish’s program is well run,
and people are wary of the unknown, Father Wittman said.
“I think you’ve got to keep an open mind,” Schleif said. “[Sharing a
program] can strengthen your faith because of the strong collaboration
that can take place during that time. It’s a nice way to reflect on your
own values, and what’s really important, and what you can give up.”
Transition is easier when everyone keeps in mind that faith formation
and other parish programs are about bringing people closer to Jesus,
Heikkila said.
“It’s not a territory, it’s a ministry,” she said.
|
|