Christian Education Program Is a 'Rejuvenation' for Diocese of Milwaukee
Episcopal News Service. August 7, 1990 [90200]
Dan Cattau, Interim News Editor of Episcopal Life.
The Diocese of Milwaukee thinks instruction in the Christian faith should not end when young people become adults.
Its five-year-old "Living Your Baptismal Covenant" program, as one priest put it, is aimed at "forming faith in adults." Formally known as the catechumenal process, it takes inspiration from an late second-century church leader, Tertullian, who said: "Christians are made, not born."
His statement is still true today.
"At present the Episcopal Church retains one in 12 teenagers three years after their confirmation," said the Rev. Dale Coleman, who helped initiate the program in the diocese. "One in seven adults confirmed or received in the Episcopal Church is still active in the church after three years. This is scandalous."
In an interview, Coleman, rector of St. Thomas of Canterbury in suburban Greendale, said: "The church has to take the lead in forming people in the Christian faith. It can't rely on the culture anymore."
Like many other church leaders, the Bishop of Milwaukee Roger J. White, who became bishop in 1984, realized that the church was doing an inadequate job of educating its members.
Believing that Christian formation is more than 12-to-16-year-old initiation rite, the diocesan leaders see it as a life-long process that avoids some common pitfalls in parish education. As Bishop White said, "The process avoids the temptation to indoctrinate people with the priest's favorite and often abstract theology of the church, or with obscure historical aspects of its past life. It is about bringing those who wish to journey with Christ up-close to the life of the community, warts and all."
Gregarious and open, the British-born bishop has the style of a natural evangelist. In an interview in the chancery office located a few blocks from Lake Michigan, he said: "We want to bring people to a commitment to follow Christ, and help direct them in what their ministry is, not just in the church, but also in the world."
White's experience with the Church of England -- and its problems in keeping members after baptism or confirmation -- convinced him that there needed to be another way to keep people in the church. He said there are many people who "are members of the church, but who have very little concept of what it meant to be a part of the church."
The nine-month program, developed with the help of the Rev. Wayne Schwab, the national church's evangelism officer, is being used in about 12 dioceses in North America. White said "it is a renewal process and an evangelism process."
Noting the decline in church membership over the last 10 to 20 years, the bishop said, "I think it had more to do with the church not feeding people." In his own diocese of more than 60 parishes with 17,000 baptized members, the decline has leveled off in recent years. But numbers can be deceiving. "I believe that evangelism is about changing people's lives," the 49-year-old White said. "It's not a numbers' game."
Emphasizing lay-clergy leadership and the renewal of the baptismal covenant, the process of "growing theologically" is built around Bible study, individual prayer, corporate worship, stewardship, and identifying skills in ministry. Though most participants already are baptized, the program is modeled after the early church's "catechumenate" for the unbaptized joining the church.
The Book of Common Prayer and The Book of Occasional Services, published in 1979, provide selected rites, prayers, blessings, and services that can be used in the catechumenal process.
Starting in September and ending sometime after Easter initiation, there are several stages to the process. The first two are the "gathering" and "inquiry" stages, where members are asked to consider, or reexamine, their Christian commitment within the context of the Anglican tradition.
Then there is "formation in Christ," where both baptized and unbaptized are presented to the community by sponsors who accompany them through a reaffirmation of faith or baptism. This part emphasizes worship and prayer life, social service and justice issues, personal storytelling in light of the Gospel, and small-group reflections on what God is doing in their "daily places."
After the formation stage, there is "intensive preparation" for the commitment of faith at Easter.
Finally, there is "formation in ministry," which follows initiation, baptism, confirmation, or reaffirmation. Participants are helped to "identify their spiritual gifts for ministry," and how these gifts can be used in their daily lives.
Diana M. Montenegro, 50, a registered nurse who serves on the diocesan committee overseeing the catechumenal process, stressed its practical nature for the participants. "It's not to say they are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly use.... Each of us are called to share our faith -- there's no getting around it."
Sharon Owen, 46, a former Roman Catholic, has been both a participant and sponsor in the process at St. Thomas of Canterbury. For her the need for the program is self-evident, asking, "Aren't Episcopalians sometimes called 'God's Frozen Chosen?"' She said of the catechumenal process: "It's a renewal. It's a rejuvenation. It's just like spring."