At the original Town Meeting of Nov. 15th a power point on Lifelong Catechesis was presented as a starting point for our discussion. You can view this on our homepage: http://www.ccsjn.org/.


The discussion included answers to the four main questions:

At St. John’s, how will you help people feel welcome and want to participate in Mass? At St. John’s, how will you develop households of faith? At St. John’s how will you bring adults into a systematic catechetical experience? At St. John’s, how will you help people experience an on going encounter with Christ?

To help people feel welcome and want to participate in Mass, it was suggested that families as well as individuals be greeters to welcome people as they enter. Also, to invite those that we support through social ministry in the community to join us at church.

In regards to developing households of faith, religious education families pointed out how they liked the short email communications they received. It was suggested to extend such communications via email to teens and young adults and/or all households in the parish.

To include adults in our learning circles, interest in adult online courses and opening up existing catechesis gatherings to all parishioners was suggested. The Saturday Catechesis Gathering is now open to all in the parish who would like to join in the adult group that breaks open the scripture of that Sunday’s Mass. We meet once a month from 10:00 to 11:00am, see bulletin for dates. Online courses at Dayton University: http://vlc.udayton.edu/ and Notre Dame University: http://www.step.nd.edu/ are now available to Metuchen diocese members at a discount. Be sure to select Metuchen on the drop down discount box when registering.

Other suggestions included: starting a women’s group again; having people from different ministries visit children’s classes and explain their ministry, having teens involved more in Christian action rather than just learning how to be a Christian in the classroom which has been an on going strategy in children’s catechesis.

All participants in the Town Meeting read a short article: The Gift of the Person of Christ and discussed in small groups: How do we encounter Christ now in our lives?

In the large group we shared our answers of:

• PEOPLE
• SCRIPTURES
• SACRAMENT
• PRAYER &
• NATURE

We invite you to post any comments you would like to share on the TOWN MEETING.

There are a number of Faith Formation Models being used by parishes across the United States. We will be reveiwing all of them to help us understand these models and evaluate their fit to the needs of our St. John community.


The Traditional Model is weekly or biweekly classes for children. This classroom model is the one we are most familiar with. Here at St. John's our biweekly classes for children are lectionary based.


In some circumstances, Home Schooling has been used. This is usually used in response to some special need of the families. In Home Schooling, parents meet and receive guidance and work assignments for their children. They then work with their children at home in order to help their children grow in knowledge and faith of God.

In more recent times, Intergenerational or Whole Community Catechesis is being developed and experienced in many more parishes. Our Saturday Catechesis Gathering which meets once a month is based on this model. To get a better understanding of this model and how they are being used in parishes in the Metuchen and Trenton dioceses, we will be reviewing the programs of St. David the King in Princeton Junction and St. Matthias in Somerset. To view a video that explains St. David's Parish Family Ministry click on the St. David's link. We will be featuring St. Matthias' G.I.F.T. or Growing in Faith Together program in a future post.

Most recently, a Summer Alternative model has proven to be successful. This catechesis occurs during two weeks in the summer. The children spend ten consecutive mornings or evenings Monday through Friday participating in catechetical lessons and activities. This takes the place of Traditional or Intergenerational classes for children which start in September. It has been found that children learn more from this focused catechetical experience while they are on summer vacation from school. To find out more about this model read "Reinventing Religious Education" by using the Reinventing Religious education link. At the beginning of this article from the Trenton Monitor you can view a video that shows you the Summer Catechesis program at St. Anselms.

Many parishes have separate models for Sacramental Preparation. While some parishes continue to include this catechesis in their traditional and intergenerational classes many parishes have developed separate programs to involve the parents and the parish community in the sacramental preparation of children. Along with making the parents more equipped to prepare their own child, the parents receive adult level catechesis on the sacraments of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation.