A burgeoning movement called whole community catechesis is capturing the attention of many religious educators throughout the diocese and forging a change in the way faith formation is presented in some parishes.

It could be viewed in part as an affirmative response to the challenge posed by Bill Huebsch, the man who has effectively summarized the process for lifelong catechesis. He was the presenter at workshops held recently at Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Redding and St. Paul Parish in Sacramento.

“A lot of people are talking to your children about God,” Huebsch said to those attending the workshops. “Shouldn’t you be one of them?”

Whole community catechesis entails shifting from a “children’s only” approach most associated with religious education to faith formation aimed at the entire parish community and embracing liturgy and the family.

“The real goal of religious education is to help people encounter Christ,” Huebsch said. “This is a shift from focusing solely on children to focusing on the whole community.”

The workshops, which drew 293 people from 51 parishes throughout the diocese, were offered in response to Pastoral Initiative 1 on faith formation/evangelization from the diocesan synod in 2004. Among other goals, the initiative calls for providing resources to parishes for family catechesis and whole community catechesis.

Huebsch, who established the whole community catechesis project in 2000, has been involved in religious education and parish administration in the Dioceses of Crookston and New Ulm, Minn., for more than 30 years and is the author numerous books on adult education topics, including “Whole Community Catechesis in Plain English” (2002).

He said that 40 years after Vatican II, more than 50 percent of Catholic parents don’t attend Mass and/or have a “thin understanding of their faith.”

“Liturgy is the main show,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how good your religious education program is…if we’re not figuring strategies to re-involve people in the Sunday liturgy, we can’t possibly succeed as Catholics.”

What is required to make that change, he said, is for parishes to become places where lifelong faith formation occurs.

The pathway to come to know Christ, he said, involves building households of faith, strengthening the role of the family, and creating intergenerational faith sharing groups.

“That sharing moment when a kind of turning of the heart happens is what we want to provide throughout parish communities,” Huebsch said.

He suggested whole community catechesis may be introduced in parishes by “breaking open the word” with questions of the week based on Scripture both in churches and homes or planning parish-based retreats.

An effective tool in building households of faith is the “50-50 covenant,” in which families enter into a partnership with their parish and both make promises of what they will do to nurture the faith.

Among those inspired by the workshop to bring a model of whole community catechesis to her parish was Carol Yelavich, faith formation coordinator at St. Clare Parish in Roseville.

St. Clare has begun creating households of faith by offering faith formation opportunities for all ages, from tots to adults. Parents of children in grades four through six are provided with materials and religious education training for use at home or for gathering in small groups with other families.

Once a month, children and parents gather for a two-hour mini-retreat, faith sharing and praying in age appropriate groups and then coming together as one household of faith.

The parish also has begun encouraging intergenerational participation between children preparing for the sacraments and the parish community.

Children preparing for the sacraments of reconciliation and first Eucharist and teens preparing for confirmation are linked with parishioners who become their prayer partners.

“It’s important that parishioners are not only made aware of opportunities for spiritual formation available in their community of faith, but are given an active role in the formation of others,” Yelavich said. “Our parish has a collective story to tell.”

Susie Hahn, pastoral associate and director of faith formation at Holy Trinity Parish in El Dorado Hills, said attending the workshop with eight other parishioners inspired everyone “to make faith a lifelong process” in their parish.

In addition to initiating the question of the week, which goes out to parish homes and Holy Trinity School, the parish has begun inviting people to attend a series of “Appreciating Our Catholic Faith” workshops in which participants meet in small groups and as one intergenerational community.

On Nov. 13 the first workshop, “A Community of Heroes,” will focus on saints of the past and heroes today.

“As people of God we need to inspire each other to be collaborators in faith,” Hahn said. “If you have lots of people inspired to make faith a lifelong process, you’re going to be going somewhere.”

At St. James Parish in Davis, religious education coordinator Ronnie Nosek said an adult faith formation committee was recently formed by Father Daniel Looney, pastor. Given the mandate to explore the possibilities for whole community catechesis, the committee has in fact become a household of faith.

“We’ve formed into this beautiful little close working community of Christ,” she said. “If it can work in a committee, it can work in the whole parish community.”

St. James has introduced the question of the week to parishioners, is encouraging incorporation of households of faith into parish ministries, and plans to have a “Living with Christ” retreat this spring.

“This is such a doable vision (of faith formation),” Nosek said. “After that encounter with Christ, the rest will just fall into place.”

At St. Paul Parish in Sacramento, families have begun meeting twice a month for faith sharing and Scripture reading, joining together as one community, then breaking into smaller age groupings.

“This group of families is very dynamic, moving along almost without me,” said Jan Sorci, religious education director at St. Paul. “People who were strangers are enthusiastic, sharing with one another.”

For more information about whole community catechesis, call Catholic Faith Formation at (916) 733-0123. Resource information is available online at www.harcourtreligion.com or www.wholecommunitycatechesis.com.

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