By Julie Godfrey Miller
Catholic Herald
Educators brainstorm on Catholic education
CAMERON -- In 2004 the National Catholic Education Association will mark its 100th anniversary. Teachers and others interested in Catholic education have been holding meetings throughout the country to discuss critical issues in education and to create a vision for the future of Catholic education.
On Oct. 7 the Diocese of Superior held a meeting at the St. Peter Parish Hall in Cameron to address these issues.
After a prayer and welcoming comments by Fr. Gerard J. Willger, pastor of St. Peter Parish, the group sang "Song at the Center" while facing, in turn, the north, south, east and west. The hymn was led by St. Felissa Zander, SSSF, on the keyboard, and Chris Newkirk keeping time on a Native American drum.
Zander is principal of St. Francis Solanus School in Reserve; Newkirk is assistant director of the Bishop George A. Hammes Center for Religious Education and Youth Ministry.
The prayer continued with meditations by Zander, who is president of the diocesan principals association, and Sr. Marianna Ableidinger, FSPA, facilitator of Superior Mutual Ministry Team, the organization of catechetical leaders in the diocese. Ableidinger is pastoral associate and director of religious education St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Lac du Flambeau.
Zander talked about the history and the role of St. Francis Solanus School. Ableidinger reflected on the history of the SUMMIT organization and of catechetical education in the diocese.
Meeting leaders Richard Lyons, director of Christian Formation, and Phyliss Schlagel, diocesan superintendent of schools explained the purpose of the meeting and divided the participants into small groups. Bishop Raphael M. Fliss attended the session as a participant in one of the groups.
Each group was asked to brainstorm on one of three topics: Catholic identity, Catholic catechetical and educational leadership, and engagement in public forums and dialogue with American culture. They identified fundamental beliefs about their topic that must be shared among members of the Christian formation and Catholic education community, and strategies to achieve that end. Each group was also asked to identify the three most and least important of the items they had listed.
According to Lyons, the ideas generated will be forwarded to the NCEA to be used in a national symposium on the future of Catholic education to be held in Washington D.C. in January.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2003