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Editor's note: With this special four-page section of Washington Window, the diocese welcomes the beginning of a new era in the field of Christian Formation. Thanks to the efforts of the Christian Formation Committee, chaired by Nancy Maestri of St. Andrew’s, College Park, and assisted by Wayne Floyd, director of the Center for Christian Formation at the Cathedral College, the diocese can now deepen its partnerships and enhance its support to Christian educators in its 93 congregations, 19 schools and eight campus ministries. This spring, the diocese will launch a new Christian Formation section on its Web site (edow.org) containing resources to assist parish leaders with activities ranging from Sunday School through Adult Education. It will offer information on topics such as choosing a curriculum, booking speakers and selecting a pilgrimage site. In making these new tools available, the diocese hopes to build a network of support for those helping others to form their faith.

By Dana Wilkie
Washington Window
Vol. 75, No. 3, Special Issue 2006

Seven years ago, Karen Kaucic was embarking on yet another year of teaching Sunday School at St. David's, D.C., and this is how she remembers it:

The students were bored, the teachers were frustrated, and no one was very enthusiastic about the prospect of the same old stories, the same Bible crafts, or the same tired curriculum.

So in stepped Sally White Bishton, the church education director at the time, who dispensed with the traditional classroom format and began rotating children through four "workshops" that highlighted a Bible story using a kitchen, an art lab, a computer center and a drama center.
First of all, Kaucic said, it was just plain fun.

"Students make food, learn through exciting computer games, do real art projects - not Bible crafts - and participate in musical and dramatic activities," said Kaucic, now director of Children's Christian Formation at St. David's. "We do not just tell them the Bible is relevant to their lives. We let them experience the Bible."

This is one small illustration of how Christian education - in the Episcopal Church and across denominations - has undergone a fundamental shift over the past five decades -even to the point of acquiring a new name: Christian formation.

Unlike the lecture-based, clergy-led, highly programmed and mostly child-focused format of yesteryear, today's Christian formation employs lay people, envelops adults, emphasizes community, nurtures creativity and embraces the concept that formation is a lifelong process not confined to the classroom nor Sundays.

"We have a tendency to identify Christian education… with specific classes and programs at church - either on a Sunday morning, or perhaps a chosen week night," said Nancy Maestri, director of Christian Formation at St. Andrew's, College Park, and chairwoman of the new diocesan Christian Formation Committee. "Formation also happens when we work together providing meals for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, or cleaning up the church building and grounds. It happens when we sit and talk with each other at a parish lunch or dinner, accompany youth to the bowling alley, or take care of children during the annual meeting. It happens when we train youth to be acolytes, when [attendants] prepare the altar for Eucharist and when the choir rehearses."

In its structure, its leadership, its use of media, its emphasis on community and its goals, "Christian Formation is a response to shifts in American culture and society, as well as to changes in Episcopal theology.

During the past five decades, American society has changed from one that was predominately Christian to a culture in which Americans view the church as one of many ways to help them in their quest for spirituality and truth. Moreover, Episcopal theology has evolved from a focus on what to believe and how to live, to "knowing one's self as a creature of God, redeemed by Jesus, so that one may continue to grow in grace both in this life and the life to come," said Day Dodson, director of Children's and Youth Ministries at St. Alban's, D.C. "In short: Christian formation."

For instance, a study of the 10 Commandments 50 years ago might have emphasized that lying was wrong and that it could result in being consigned to hell. Today, the typical Christian education course instead explores truthfulness as an attribute of God and of Jesus, and stresses that it is God's nature to forgive.

"The major shift from Christian education to Christian formation is particularly effective with the very young," Dodson said. "Children are people of wonder and awe, and their lives are all about formation. They are not encumbered by 'the way we've always done things,' and they greet discovery with excitement and joy."

The "Godly Play" curriculum has been particularly popular in Episcopal parishes. The program, designed ideally for children ages 4 to 8, is based on the Maria Montessori method that emphasizes independence, questioning and the use of two- and three-dimensional materials for learning and self-directed work.

Before St. John's, Georgetown, started its Godly Play program three years ago, Sunday school classes would typically lure no more than three children a weekend.

"Now we have eight to 12 every week," said Laura Bachmann, youth formation leader at St. John's. "I know of a couple of families that have joined the church just for the Godly Play program because the children find it so enticing. During last week's lesson about the Good Samaritan, one little boy talked about how there are lots of people from countries that don't get along and how this parable was just like what happens in our world today. How's that for theology from a 7-year-old?"

Also in the past half century, Christian educators have grown more aware of the different ways that people learn, and so have incorporated into their lessons video, drama and music. In keeping with the liturgical shift of the late 1970s - in which worship evolved from a clergy-led event to one that included lay leaders and other parishioners - Christian Education has also become more community-oriented, incorporating more group discussion and interactive learning.

Before Kaucic's church began experimenting with its new teaching format seven years back, the children's education courses were predictable: The teacher read a story from Scripture; the children made a Bible-related craft; maybe they sang a children's hymn and said a prayer.

"On the verge of a teachers' strike… we were introduced to a novel approach to Sunday School," Kaucic said, noting that the "workshop rotation model" - developed in the Presbyterian Church in the 1990s - has revolutionized the Sunday School experience. Each lesson stresses not only a Bible story, but also the application of the story to the children's lives.

For those who are preteens or older, there are now programs that grew out of the "Journey to Adulthood" format first developed in the early 1990s. This six-year program of spiritual formation for youth is divided into three two-year segments called Rite 13, Journey to Adulthood (or J2A) and Young Adults in the Church (or YAC).

Designed for children from the preteen years to young adulthood, the curriculum covers four areas - self, spirituality, society and sexuality. The segments aim to recognize independence and movement away from parents, to help children develop leadership, partnership and listening skills, and to finally encourage the older ones to take on adult responsibilities within the church.

"As the same children reach adolescence, it becomes their nature to question and challenge," Dodson said. "This is a critical stage of self-discovery and faith formation. Ideally, they have Church School formation in their inventory. But the focus of Rite 13 and J2A is formation in community, and questions and challenges are encouraged and nurtured."

Today, there are more creative programs for adults, such as Alpha and Via Media, to complement traditional programs of Bible study and catechesis. Adult courses often tend to emphasis group discussion, rather than lectures, which some church leaders believe has fostered an interest in hearing and discussing divergent viewpoints.

Many Episcopalian parishes in the area have an Education for Ministry class that meets weekly over a four-year period to study the Old and New Testament, church history and theology. Disciples of Christ in Community is another in-depth course that allows adults to build Christian community while encouraging their spiritual growth.

Others take advantage of the Virginia Seminary's Evening School of Theology, the Wesley Seminary's Equipping Lay Ministry and the Servant Leadership School in Adams Morgan.
At St. Andrew's, College Park, a "Spiritual Journeys" group meets monthly, reading about the spiritual journeys of ordained and lay leaders in the church. Washington National Cathedral is expanding its Centering Prayer program and now opens its doors on the last Tuesday of the month to allow individuals to walk the labyrinth.

"One of the things that I have heard people asking for over the past 10 years in parishes is a way to simplify the craziness of our American way of life," says the Rev. Ann Moczydlowski, who is not now affiliated with a parish. "Some parishes are focusing more and more on that idea of 'living simply so that others may simply live.'"

Tatiana, a recently confirmed 15-year-old, recalls that it was a bumpy road on the way to confirmation. "I was feeling kind of not so sure about whether I believed in God or not - I had had some hard times, and felt like God had not been there for me."

She nevertheless decided to take the classes, just to see what it was all about. She says, "I asked a lot of questions. I know at times it probably sounded like I didn't even like God at all, or that I was mad at him. But I just wanted to know, you know?"

Over the course of time, and with additional Bible study and interaction with her youth group, she began to sense that God really was a presence in her life. But, she notes, it all came together at the youth Lock-in this year at Washington National Cathedral.

"You know, I was in one of the little rooms during one of the stations - yeah - it was St. Mary's Chapel. And I kept looking at her, and the angels and everything. Then, I got this feeling inside like - like a very peaceful feeling... I could really feel God there...it's hard to explain, but I know now for sure that God is really real!"

Judy, who has been 'churched' much of her life, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. It was a blow in more ways than one. She relates: "I was so angry with God. 'Why did you let this happen to me?' I'd rail, fist in the air. I felt helpless and my faith was damaged. It's one thing becoming a cancer victim - but, I'm also the primary caregiver for my sister who is chronically ill. How could [God] let this happen to me when my sister needs me so much?"

Soon after the diagnosis, Judy had surgery. With a tang of incredulity in her voice she reports, "The doctors were so surprised - the 'lump,' which they say could only have been found by the mammogram, was even smaller than they thought, and there was no cancer in lymph nodes or elsewhere!" While she must go through several months of therapy, she says she's so grateful and humbled by the experience.

"For one thing, I've warned my friends that they must get a mammogram and not make excuses. The doctors say that by the time I could feel the lump, it would've been too late! Someone told me my experience could possibly help save the lives of many others. Now that I've had time to think about all of it, that's amazing. I also realized just how much God has blessed me and been merciful to me, and it took all of this to see it. That the cancer is not more than it is, that I can still help my sister - we're only 5 minutes from the hospital! My life now is such that I have more time to care for her, not to mention that there are medicines and treatments to help us, and so many other blessings, I'm feeling overwhelmed by God's grace."

I began my Christian formation with an Adult Journey group. I had no previous experience with the church; I thought this class had been suggested to me because it was for beginners. Some beginners - from five to 70 years in the church! Thus the first thing I learned was that for true seekers the quest for Christian knowledge is never over. And after five years of classes, forums and discussion groups I still feel like a beginner, so now I understand why. I continue to seek formation through education, prayer and meditation, worship and fellowship with all different kinds of people. I can't wait to see what God has planned for me!
Sheila Emond
Silver Spring

When Augusta was about 4 years old, she was in the chapel as the adults prepared it for a service. She said to her mother and the priest (the Rev. Alison Quinn), "kneel down," indicating the altar rail kneelers. They knelt. Little Augusta, inside the rail, made her way along it. Even with the adults on their knees she was barely tall enough to look them in their eyes. But she knew her stuff. "The body of Christ," she said to them. "Now say, 'Amen!'"…and they did.
The Rev. Jennifer McKenzie,
St. David's, D.C.

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