Whole Community Catechesis is an ancient approach with a new title and energy.  From the beginning of our church we have gathered inter-generationally to be formed in the discipleship of Jesus Christ.  Early Church writings talks about  households of faith.  Throughout history, we as Church community, valued the wisdom of elders as well as the young.

Today, we celebrate and affirm the need of the village concept in formation.  "It takes a whole village to raise a child".  However, new to each of us in the Church is the importance of  adult formation.  We are all on this faith journey together and must be educated and formed in order to be the disciples we are called to be.  A disciple is knowledgeable, a good practicer of  life in Christ and one who gathers to celebrate with other disciples at the Sunday Eucharist.  

 Resources for whole community catechesis

Publishers with materials and resources to share in this discipleship way are listed below:

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Whole Community Catechesis: An Exciting New Framework for Providing Religious Ed (Author: Bill Huebsch)

Conversion: The Heart of Whole Community Catechesis (Author: Bill Huebsch)

Faith At Home

http://www.harcourtreligion.com/wcc_20070211.asp

 

 

  Generations of Faith 

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  • Discover curriculum models for lifelong faith formation that you can utilize in your parish community.
  • Download Generations of Faith Curriculum Models - Download Word File
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    Explore the Generations of Faith Chart of Catechetical Themes and the resources available for developing a systematic, lifelong, intergenerational curriculum for the entire parish community.

  • Generations of Faith Chart of Catechetical Themes

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    Whole Community Catechesis

    On November 19th and November 28th St. Matthias Parish’s Faith Formation Team hosted two Generations of Faith gatherings. The first was held on Sunday afternoon, Nov 19th from 11:30-2:30 pm. The same topic, Preparing for the Messiah was repeated on Tuesday evening, November 28th from 6-9pm. The parish provided lunch and dinner for the participants. At each, there were about 120 people of all ages present.

    The Sunday before the first gathering, we held a planning meeting. Over 40 parishioners helped to make these gatherings a great success. We had teams who planned/provided the meals, table facilitators, people who worked behind the scenes to help prepare materials, craft leaders, presenters, prayer leaders, and childcare providers for the each of the sessions.

         Each table of 8-10 people was deliberately arranged with a mix of all ages. I also tried to match parishioners who are less involved in parish life with those who are more involved.
     
         Each session consisted of discussion amongst table groups about Hebrew Scripture and Gospel readings for the Advent Season as well as activities to help us internalize what we had learned. Each household also received a “Home Kit”
    Based on the Evaluation Forms returned by participants, comments were positive. All enjoyed meeting new people in the parish, and learning more about scripture. In fact, several people felt inspired to learn more and get more involved!