By Anne Inman
Many parishes are still in transition between the instruction model of catechesis and the RCIA emphasis on conversion to Christ and the gospel way of life. Focusing on the importance of shared experience and dialogue points the way forward
Minutes before Sunday Mass was about to begin, the parish priest introduced a new practice. He said that lay people, as a mark of reverence, are now to bow before receiving Communion. After Mass, one woman commented to another woman who had not bowed that she must have missed the explanation. The woman replied that she had heard it, but asked if this change was implying that she had not been receiving Communion reverently up to now.
It was reminiscent of my schooldays, when the whole class was told off because a few had misbehaved – and it was often those who had not misbehaved who took the reprimand to heart. Introducing changes to liturgy is a long process. A good example is the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Bishops of England and Wales told us this rite is the exemplar and rule for all Christian initiation; they commended it to the attention of all parish communities and directed that it be implemented by the first Sunday of Advent, 1988. More than 20 years later, however, the rite’s existence is a complete revelation to some people.
I am director of a pastoral formation programme and the fact that many of our students come from parishes where the RCIA is still not fully implemented raises big questions for me and others involved in adult faith formation. When lay people come to study with us, are we simply storing up trouble by making them aware of the extraordinary richness of a rite that they will be powerless to implement?
A corresponding question arises for priests who send their parishioners to study with us: will those parishioners then want to change the way things are being done, without due sensitivity to what is already happening?
Although more than two decades have passed since the RCIA was reintroduced, many parishes are still in the transition period between the instruction model, with its focus on imparting the fundamental teachings of the faith, and the RCIA mode with its focus on conversion to Christ and the gospel way of life.
Many of the students on our EPS (Education for Parish Service) programme are parish catechists, and we constantly invite them to apply the theology that we teach to their own parish situation. In relation to the RCIA, students are taught a sound knowledge of the rite, with its various stages that lead to the liturgical celebrations. The RCIA represents a template for evangelisation and catechesis, based on the underlying principles of welcoming, grafting one another’s stories together into one pilgrimage journey, being open to each other and together to the promptings of the Spirit and allowing oneself to be thoroughly immersed into the community through liturgical celebrations. These principles are the principles that underlie the ethos of the EPS community.
Students are not taught how adult initiation should take place in their parish. They learn that change takes place gradually through interaction with others; it is not forced. Classes take place on Thursdays during term time; and, because the students have a whole day of teaching, a considerable amount of group work and class discussion is included.
While practically all our students are Catholic, the backgrounds from which they are drawn are diverse. Many have experienced the Church prior to the Second Vatican Council. Listening to the thinking of the others, the students become aware of the narrowness of their own perspective. Hearing others bear witness to the activity of the Spirit in unfamiliar ways serves to bring home the extraordinary richness of the Catholic tradition.
The students are encouraged to engage with the people of their parish in the same way when it comes to making changes. They come to realise that they will only find out where people are through dialogue; and interaction with other students provides a taste of the diversity to be expected. And respectful interaction with other students is itself an exercise in dialogue.
No adult (baptised or not) is a blank sheet of paper, waiting for knowledge or correct procedures to be impressed upon it. Faith formation is never merely a matter of passing on academic knowledge or performing set exercises. It is a coming together of spiritual beings in open dialogue, each with their own history – the prior story that constitutes their own personal pilgrimage thus far.
The word educate in its Latin root means to draw out: educare. Catechesis is a matter of drawing out from the experiences of those involved those moments in their lives when they have been most acutely aware of their encounters with God – helping them to recognise the workings of the Spirit – and bringing them into relationship (or into deeper relationship) with Christ.
I think this is what the Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity was referring to when it talked about “those elements of truth and grace which are found among people” as “a secret presence of God”. It is always a humbling experience to be let into this “secret presence” – whether you are accompanying someone studying theology, or you are part of a reflection group, or you are an RCIA catechist or whatever the circumstances.
This is a time of change in the Church. There are fewer priests and more lay people are looking for ways to deepen their love of God and their service to the Church. More and more of these people are benefiting from courses offering adult formation – catechists, pastoral assistants, parish secretaries or administrators, chaplains, musicians or others involved in pastoral ministry.
Indeed, the Church teaches that it should be the model for all catechesis – and that this catechumenal formation should inspire the other forms of catechesis in both their objectives and in their dynamism. It could prove a most useful model for the implementation of the more recent liturgical changes that are now upon us.
To Do:
Consider how easily you accept/embrace change
Find ways of implementing the underlying principles of RCIA in all aspects of parish life
Identify someone you know who might benefit from a pastoral formation programme
Anne Inman is the director of Education for Parish Service (EPS) in Southwark, working in partnership with St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, to offer a foundation degree in pastoral ministry. For more information, visit: www.eps-uk.org.uk
