Catechists are always on the lookout for fresh approaches to teaching in Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults and Rite of Catholic Initiation for Children. A recent workshop gave those in attendance a few new perspectives.
The Office of African American Ministry, in conjunction with the office of Lifelong Catholic Formation/Education, sponsored a workshop on the RCIA and RCIC in April. The workshop featured two presenters, Richard Cheri and Dr. Kathleen Dorsey-Bellows.
The two presenters spoke to the attendees as a whole and then split off to present their own unique workshops. Cheri focused on different models for how RCIA is taught.
“I’ve been involved in youth ministry for about 40 years now. In this workshop I want to talk about what we’re doing as a church, what we’re not doing and find some clarity in different models of teaching RCIA,” Cheri said.
Dorsey-Bellows focused on relating to African culture and using it to find new ways of teaching catechesis.
“This is all about opening up conversations and opening yourself up to culture. Faith and culture are so connected, and we need to use that connection. You have to find the way that God calls you to be invested,” Bellows said.
Dorsey-Bellows used the religion of African tribes to show how they relate to the faiths of today.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about African peoples that I’ve learned about through studying black Catholic history. I was always taught that African peoples and tribes were pagan, which is true, but I learned that there was always one god above all other gods throughout all the different tribes,” Dorsey-Bellows said.
She also expanded on different aspects of the faith of these tribes and different interpretations of them.
“It was also a misconception that the tribes worshipped things like trees. If a person wants to make a drum he has to cut materials from a tree so he gives thanks to the tree and for the tree. He does not worship the tree, but he realizes that if God made this tree then God is in this tree,” Dorsey-Bellows said.
Cheri used examples from different dioceses that he had visited and their unique models for RCIC schedules to try and get the attendees to think more outside the box when setting up their programs.
“I visited a parish last year that got all of their formal training out of the way in a two-week session during the summer,” Cheri said.
“The classes would be from 9 to 5 during the regular school week and it was just amazing. Now obviously not every parish can find people with schedules to fit that model but it opens up your view to other ways of doing things,” he said.
Cheri also offered a new way of finding volunteers in parishes.
“What we do in my parish is we hand out surveys to different parishioners and ask them who in the diocese or in our parish would make a good mentor. Then we go to those people they named and let them know that people are saying they would make a good mentor and ask if they are interested in volunteering,” Cheri said.
During the sessions the attendees split into smaller groups to discuss the different ways they could use what they had just learned at their own parishes.
“Kathleen brought a different perspective and a new way of approaching things that takes into consideration different aspects of culture which is excellent for those working with the African America community in the church,” Dr. Lorraine Deluca, director of the office of Lifelong Catholic Formation and Education, said.
