Equip 2010 Online Registration

The online registration forms and workshop descriptions are available for Equip 2010!

Go to the Equip 2010 page and find the link to the online registration form. Fill out that form and submit. Your registration information will be sent by email.

Then go to the payment form page, download the Payment Form PDF. This is an electronic form. You can type in your information within Acrobat Reader. Print that form and send it to Equip 2010, Holy Cross Church, 405 West Clark Street, Champaign, IL 61820 with a check for $15 made payable to Holy Cross Church. Please write in the memo section "Equip 2010."

I'm including an updated flyer that has the website info for online registration in this email. Please print several copies and give them to your catechist friends.

If you would rather register by mail, your DRE or CRE will receive a paper registration brochure in the mail in a few days. You can get a copy from them and mail it in.

There is also more information on Equip 2010 such as a detailed schedule of events, workshop descriptions, speaker biographies and driving directions to Holy Cross Church.

Thank you for supporting Equip 2010. It should be a fantastic training. Hope to see you there.

Equip 2010 Speaker Line Up

I want to remind everyone that the Equip 2010 Workshops are scheduled for Saturday, August 28 at Holy Cross Church in Champaign. The day begins with registration at 8:00 a.m. and lasts until 12:30 p.m. There will also be Mass offered at 7:30 a.m. by Msgr. Albert Hallin.

We have a great lineup of speakers this year I know you will enjoy. Each year we focus on one of the four pillars of the Catechism and this year it's the Creed. Dr. Kenneth Howell will be presenting the keynote this year on the connections between the deposit of doctrine and the Creed. St. Augustine said that the Creed is like the entire Catholic Faith in miniature. All the doctrines of the Church are sort of compressed and compacted down into the Creed in an easy to memorize formula that you can always have with you. He said it must be memorized because then, in the learning of it, the words will not only by impressed on your memory but also in your heart.

Msgr. Albert Hallin will present on Jesus Christ, concentrating on the correct understanding of the most commonly misunderstood doctrines concerning Jesus.

We have Fr. Tony Co from the St. John's Newman Center at U of I. His workshop is drawn from the work of Fr. Luigi Guisani, founder of the Communion and Liberation Movement. The goal of our teaching should be more than merely imparting information. Speaking about methodology, Fr. Co will talk about how to teach the person in order to bring them into union with Christ.

We have Mrs. Patricia Prall from Schlarman High School in Danville presenting on resources for finding answers to questions about the Faith. At some point, we will all run across questions we don't know or concepts we don't understand. Where do we find the answers? Mrs. Prall will give some practical ideas for giving yourself a firmer foundation in the Catholic Faith.

In addition, Roger Phelps, DRE at Our Lady of the Lake in Mahomet, will be offering a First-year Catechist Track for those who are brand new to teaching religion this year. This is a very practical nuts and bolts overview of how to get started in the classroom. If you are just starting this year, you won't want to miss this workshop!

There are also workshops on catechist spirituality, ideas for incorporating salvation history into the classroom and methodology for classroom management.

We will be sending out registration information in the first week of August.

This promises to be a fantastic lineup! I hope you'll join us on Saturday, August 28 at 8:00 a.m.

Evening of Reflection with Joe Paprocki

Exploring Our Catholic Identity: A Closer Look At What Makes Us Catholic

Joe Paprocki will be at St. Jude Parish, Peoria on Thursday, October 7 at 6:00 pm. Paprocki is author of The Catechist's Toolbox and A Well-Built Faith both published by Loyola Press. There will be dinner, three breakout sessions, and question and answer time. Joe will be addressing spirituality and prayer during one break-out session and a "sharing classroom ideas" session. The evening will conlcude with a short prayer service, and each participant will receive one of Joe’s books to take home.

Watch for more information in early September when registration for this special evening will begin. Mark your calendars now to “save the date!”

Contact Kimberly Thompson, CRE 309.243.7811 Ext. 213

St. Jude Catholic Church 10811 N. Knoxville Avenue Peoria, Illinois 61615

Guides to Confession for Adults and for Children

The diocesan confession guides are now available online. You can get a pdf of this from the diocesan website, www.cdop.org. The printed versions of the pamphlets will no longer be available. Contact Laurie Ullrich if you have any questions.

News and Announcements

"Let My People Come" Dates

Here are some upcoming dates for the “Let My People Come” series. There are none in our immediate area but possibly some of you might be up for driving to Bloomington.

• Thursday, April 22, 7:00 p.m., “Classroom Management,” St. Anne’s Parish Hall, East Moline, Dr. Vincent McClean, presenter.

• Wednesday, May 27, 7:00 p.m., “Mother Mary and the Year of the Rosary,” Church of St.Patrick (Historic), Bloomington, Father William T. Miller, I.C., presenter.

• June 11 - 12, Diocesan Summer Institute, St. Vincent de Paul School. In addition to Fr. Andrew Apostoli, John Michael Talbot will offer two sessions in spirituality at this year’s Institute. We have many other fine speakers for the Institute this year.

• Thursday, July 22, 6:30 p.m., “Parent Meetings,” St. Patrick Parish of Merna, Bloomington, Sharon Priester, presenter.

Preparing for the New Translations of the Roman Missal

This is a message from the Office of Divine Worship:
As we anticipate the approval of the new English translations of the Missal, several national groups (including the USCCB) have announced plans for formation programs. The Offices of Divine Worship, Catholic Education and Catholic Schools are preparing programs to introduce the new translations to our diocese, as well as provide an opportunity for renewed liturgical catechesis. In late fall 2010, we hope to make presentations to the clergy about the new translations, followed by regional presentations to parish leaders in the spring semester 2011. By the Fall of 2011, programs should be in place to prepare our parishes for the coming liturgical renewal. Details are still to be announced, and, of course, may need to be adjusted once a schedule for implementation has been announced by the Vatican. Resources will be made available through the monthly mailing, the diocesan website and the Catholic Post. Further resources are available on www.USCCB.org.

First Communicants Mass

Don’t forget! The First Communicants Mass will be on Saturday, June 5, 2010 at the 4:00 p.m. Cathedral Mass. This will be the culmination of the Year of the Rosary. Each First Communicant will receive a personal letter of invitation from Bishop Jenky. Please reserve this date on your parish calendar.

Leadership Training Day Set!

It’s official! The date for the Great Adventure Leadership Training Day is set for May 22, 2010 at St. Patrick of Merna Church in Bloomington. The cost is $55 for the study leader track and $40 for the core team/group facilitator track.

Take a look at my earlier post for details on what to expect from this training. This is a new initiative for Ascension Press and the Great Adventure. They just started giving this training last year, and I’m told they have re-evaluated the original material and will completely revise the workshop just in time for our training in May.

Previously if you wanted to start a study, you had to roll up your sleeves and figure it out all on your own. Or, if you knew someone that had set one up, you could ask them to help you get it started. The resources on the website explaining how to actually accomplish this were limited at best. I had never even been to a Bible study, much less started one from scratch, so this was a daunting task. Now, with this leadership training, you can get all the information, material, resources and know-how you need to start a study the right way and keep it going.

In addition, there is training for group facilitators and assistants/core team members. This will include classroom instruction on group facilitation as well as hands-on training in mock study groups to gain practical experience. So, if you’re looking to recruit new group facilitators that don’t have any experience, you can offer them this training as an incentive. They don’t have to go in cold!

If you’re not involved in leading a Great Adventure Study, please pass this information along to the persons in your parish in charge of leading the studies. If your parish hasn’t started a Great Adventure study yet and you would like to, this is the perfect opportunity to find someone interested in leading and getting them the expertise they would need.

Notes on the Summer Institute this year

Below are a few of the decisions made recently by the DSI Advisory Board regarding the Summer Institute this year. DSI is still in the planning stages at this point and nothing is final yet, but it’s a pretty good bet it won’t change much from this.

The registration and brochures will be different this year. The brochure being mailed out will contain the program for this year’s Summer Institute with a map on the back. For convenience, the rooms will be color coded. There will be a letter of explanation sent along with the brochure and the registration form. It’s hoped that the registration form will be put on the diocesan website for online registration. The registrants will be notified of the reception of their registration form by either e-mail or telephone.

The participants will pick up their name tags and the agenda on the day of the Institute. There will be several tables where participants can pick up these things as they arrive – all will be in alphabetical order.

The poster contest is in full swing and “save the date” postcards will be sent out to the other dioceses of Illinois. The winning pictures of the poster contest will hang in the entrance to the Diocesan Summer Institute.

Conference attendees will be notified that various vendors will be in the three workshops dedicated to the various grades on methods, materials, and spirituality.

The St. Vincent de Paul men’s club will be manning the “food court.” The lunches will cost no more than $5.00 per day.

The cost of this year’s Summer Institute will be $30.00 per day or $55.00 for both days.

There will be no Sheen endowments this year due to the economic conditions. Letters will be sent to the pastors asking that the parishes pay for their catechists to attend. The letter to pastors will also ask them to promote the Summer Institute in their bulletin announcements.

Finally, on Friday evening, June 11, a film on Archbishop Sheen will be shown at St. Vincent’s in the new gym.

Watch for more information on the Summer Institute in the coming months. I’ll make it available as it comes along.

Info from the February Catechetical Council Meeting

Here are a few items that might be of interest from the Catechetical Council Meeting in Peoria held on February 25. The Catechetical Council is the monthly meeting of RDREs and Diocesan Office of Catechetics staff.

A parishioner of St. Mary Parish in Rock Island is working on putting the “Let My People Come” PowerPoint presentations on the diocesan web page.

There will be no Sheen funds available for scholarships to the Diocesan Summer Institute this year.

Lunch will be open to the participant’s choice this year and not part of the Summer Institute admission fee. Participants will have the option of leaving the St. Vincent de Paul campus for a restaurant in town or paying for lunch on the premises. The St. Vincent de Paul Men’s Club will provide food concessions for a flat fee of $5.00 per lunch, which will include a wide variety of choices. More info to come on food choices.

Sessions will not be recorded by Florian Audio/Visual this year. Instead, three talks, the keynote speaker, Fr. Andrew Apostoli, John Michael Talbot’s session and Fr. Antoine Thomas’ session will be videotaped and these will be made available for sale.

First 'Let My People Come" Lecture in the bag!

The first “Let My People Come” lecture for the Champaign and Danville region is complete! Alan Anderson, the DRE for St. Mary’s in Metamora and RDRE for the Lasalle/Peru region, gave a very structured and informative presentation on lesson planning. Entitled “Creative Lesson Planning...Not!”, the presentation centered on planning your teaching using tried and true methods that are perhaps old-fashioned but very effective.

A former political satirist and college professor in Political Science, Anderson now teaches in the grade school and CCD programs at St. Mary’s. Anderson commented that the methods of conveying information effectively have not really changed that much since their first inception in the schools of ancient Greece. “In technology and the hard sciences we’ve moved ahead lightyears,” Anderson stated quoting a former Harvard professor who taught him, “but in the social sciences we’ve moved ahead really very little.”

Some of Anderson’s basic rules for lesson planning:

• Understand your role as passing on knowledge of Christ
• Don’t feel you have to “teach it all,” but understand you have to teach “something”
• Follow the KISS principle -- Keep It Simple, Saint!
• Pray before and after preparing for class
• Pay as much attention to your own spiritual life as you do to your students and your preparation

UPDATE: DSI Poster Contest

The Office of Catechetics is sponsoring a poster contest within each region to publicize the 2010 Diocesan Summer Institute. The theme is "Let My People Come," celebrating the life of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.

Students enrolled in CCD programs and Catholic schools are eligible. A prize of $100 will be awarded to one student from each RDRE's regions. So, there will be one winner from the Champaign/Danville region. The DSI Advisory Board will be the judges  and these posters will be used to foster attendance at the Summer Institute.

I don't have firm date on the deadline so I'm going to tentatively say it's March 6, the date of the final Advisory Board meeting. I'll post a followup with more on that when I find out.

UPDATE: I got the official word. The deadline is April 12. 

Great Adventure Leadership Training Day

I’m working with the Regional DRE in Bloomington to host a Great Adventure Bible Study leaders workshop on May 22, 2010. This Great Adventure Leadership Training Day will take place at the Church of St. Patrick of Merna just outside Bloomington. It’s been in the works for a few months and it’s getting finalized now. I’m very excited about this and I think it will be a big help to everyone doing Great Adventure studies and to those who would like to start one. It should draw people from all over the diocese and even the whole Midwest region!

The training day will be conducted by Kelly Wahlquist and Sarah Christmeyer from Ascension Press. Kelly works directly with Jeff Cavins in organizing and promoting the Great Adventure studies. Sarah is co-author of the studies with Cavins. The training day includes:

- Understanding educational philosophy and methodology
- The nuts and bolts of organizing and implementing a study
- Keys to successful marketing
- Tools for training and supporting your small group facilitator

 Each participant receives a packet of materials to equip them with the tools needed to implement and lead a successful Bible study or small group including:

- A Catholic Bible Study Resource Guide
- Bible Timeline Chart
- Great Adventure Promo dvd
- How to Market Your Great Adventure Study cd
- How to Facilitate a Small Group cd
- Before You Begin Document
- The Journey, The Great Adventure Newsletter

And handouts such as:
Three Keys to Organizing Your Great Adventure Study
The Role of the Small Group Facilitator in Scripture Study
Bringing the Great Adventure to Your Parish & Your Family
The Great Adventure Current Seminar Schedule
Sample of a Bible Timeline Lesson
Review Pack Explanation and Order Form

You can check out more details at the Training Days website.

"Let My People Come" in Catholic Post

The Catholic Post published an good article on the “Let My People Come” lecture series in the January 3rd edition. The article explains the concept behind the program and includes a detailed schedule for all the events occurring throughout the diocese. Here is a link to an online copy of the article.

Power Point Presentations

Some of the RDRE’s have developed a series of PowerPoint slides for the Office of Catechetics to assist DRE’s with tasks like running a First Communion Parent Meeting or teaching Creative Lesson Planning. These are designed to help DRE’s give catechist training, provide a bit of standardization across the diocese, assist DRE’s in performing common tasks. The people that developed these presentations are extremely experienced as catechists and DRE’s and have a wealth of information to share. This is a valuable resource. Again, see the letter on the front page of December’s Leaven for additional details.

I have many copies of these CD’s and can make more for anyone that wants them. There is no charge.

Here is a list of the presentations currently available:
Chastity
Christology
First Communion
First Reconciliation
Classroom Management
Lesson Planning
Parent Meetings
Confirmation
Text and Curriculum

“Let My People Come”

This is a series of lectures to be held throughout the diocese in the coming year.  There is a letter from Dr. Vincent McClean, the Director of Catechetics, on the front page of the December Leaven with additional details.

“Let My People Come“ is an initiative from the Office of Catechetics to offer continuing education for catechists and DRE’s in spiritual development and practical teaching skills. The plan, for now, is to offer one training lecture a month rotating around the  different regions of the diocese. Since there are six regions, that  means we in the Champaign/Danville region will have two training lectures in the coming year.

A schedule of lectures was published in the December Leaven but that schedule is wrong. It has a lecture happening here in February and in April. The February 25th date is correct but the April date is in error. Instead, there will be a training session in October....more on that below.

The February training lecture is on Lesson Planning. It will be at the Holy Cross Parish Center at 6:30 pm on Thursday February 25th. Alan Anderson, the RDRE for the Lasalle-Peru area, has put together a presentation for catechists and DRE’s. It has a dual purpose. It is primarily intended as a practical guide for catechists. However, it is also intended to show a DRE how to conduct training on lesson planning using the format that Alan has developed.

We will hand out an accompanying CD that contains the Power Point lecture Alan will be presenting. This way, a DRE attending this lecture will be able to give the training to his or her catechists in the future. The Office of Catechetics has developed several of these training lecture Power Point presentations on a free CD (see below).

The other training lecture on October 21st at 7:00 pm is not a lecture at all. It will be an Explanatory Mass at Holy Cross Church done by Bishop Jenky himself! I’ll have more details on that as we get closer to the date.

I could really use some help with hospitality and set up for the lecture on February 25th. Please consider helping out, and also please pass this along to all your catechists.