Catechumenate Guy

From a Lent with much suffering and dying to an Easter with signs of new life and much hope:  this is the story of the catechumenate at Trinity Cathedral for the beginning of 2012.

Much of the story has been detailed in a previous post (“You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am”).  Lent was a time of discussion with Anne McKeever, the Director of Youth & Adult Spiritual Formation (ASF), Lynell Walker, previous Director of Adult Spiritual Formation & part time rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Sacramento. Lynell has ministered in the catechumenate for many years and truly understands the process of spiritual formation it strives to provide.  She is also excellent in giving people things to reflect upon after a meeting.  I met with Brian Baker, Dean of the cathedral and the person who baptized an adult on the 2nd Sunday of Lent.  In act, if not in theory, Brian advocates “easy grace” and minimal sacramental prep.  Recently he admitted to me that he does not have a good understanding or appreciation of liturgy.  But he did provide insight in getting me to admit that our current catechumenal process was ineffective.   After thinking through some possible revisions of Trinity’s catechumenate, I met with our team to get input.

My proposal is to join in with the rest of the ASF program by developing and offering a series of basic courses throughout the year.  Lynell’s insight was,  “Jerry, when I’m leading Lunch Bunch or The Writing Circle or any of a bunch of groups, I’m doing catechumenate.  Brian’s was, “I baptized because we don’t have a viable catechumenate.” and “The participants want answers.  We need to offer some ‘101’ courses.”

How does all of this fit into a bigger picture?  The plan is to teach intro courses all year round so that people will have that to get into when they join or after they finish the Newcomer’s classes.  Then, in November, we start promoting the catechumenate for adults wanting to prepare for Baptism, Confirmation, Reception, or Renewal.  During Advent and Epiphany we will focus on “sacramental life.”  We will have a Rite of Commitment in there (probably right after Christmas/New Year’).   Two Sunday’s before Lent we will have a presentation of the Creed with a retreat on the Saturday before Lent begins. Enrollment on the First Sunday of Lent and go from there!  During Lent the focus of the meetings will be the baptismal covenant as embodied in the Apostle’s creed.  With a retreat on the creed as well, this might be too much emphasis. But the details still need to be worked out.  Maybe changing some of the meeting times so that the candidates can actively participate in Stations of the Cross and other lenten prayer activities.

I’m excited by the prospects.  It will be seen how well it draws.  The classes and set time frame for actual “preparation” may get better response.

The above question can be answered in numerous ways. All involve praxis because of the very nature of sacrament as visible action celebrating grace.

Most recently my experience is one in which there is a presumption that grace is alive and well in a person if/when they step forward and express an interest in celebrating a sacrament.  No further preparation or formation is deemed necessary.  The presumption is that celebration precedes growth in grace; that there is no need for the Christian community to voice expectations that the seeker act in ways that show sincerity of purpose and/or an understanding of what we are celebrating.

This model allows for baptism almost immediately upon request with 60 – 90 minute “instruction” being adequate for the formation process.  It allows for designated length “classes” for those who say they want to be confirmed (with suspicions that it is the parents who are acting upon parental wants for their children).  It allows for an open table where all are invited to communion when no attempt has previously been made to incorporate the new communicant into the community.

There may be a consistency in this model when we address other sacraments of vocation, i.e. marriage and orders.  The development I see is a lessening of the importance of seminary training and discernment by the local community that the person is indeed called and meets some set of criteria prior to ordination.  And that set is named.  We witness the current dissolution of marriage when this model is applied to that sacrament.  We witnessed the degradation of vocations during the middle ages with ordained clergy who were ignorant of theology and not infused with a prayer life and again recently in denominations where the emphasis was on getting ordained personnel “out into the field” rather than grace filled leaders of prayer.

The presumption is that there is a grace bestowed at baptism, at confirmation, in Eucharist through which the newly baptized, the confirmandi, the new communicant will continue to grow.  This may be the case.  However it is not the theology of the Church except in very recent times.

The theology of the early church and of the church reforming since Vatican II is that there is a need to recognize stages of initial growth in Christ through the rites of Christian initiation, including Eucharist.

During these last few weeks I thought that the praxis of “quick” baptism and confirmation, and of invitations to the table to those with little if no understanding of what they are celebrating,  might be part of emergent church theology.  I thought it might be seen as a response to the recognition that fewer and fewer people see Christianity as as a viable response to their quest for the Good or that any such quest is happening at all.  But, as I read material on the sacraments in our postmodern age, I see that a different praxis is encouraged.

This alternative emphasizse the need to discern where an inquirer is at, to hear their story, to guide them along a path that includes.  The recent work of Keenan Osborne, OFM (Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern Worl:…), Samuel Torvend (Flowing Water; Uncommon Birth) and others advocate for catechumenates that model that which Jesus exercised with his disciples.  Such a catechumenate is open-ended and usually takes a year or more to complete.  Celebration is at Easter.  Such a catechumenate extends to confirmation and celebration of Eucharist as part of initiation, not before it.  Both of these authors and others seek an answer in the postmodern world that is also named as the sacramental theology response as part of emergent church theology.

We did what I said we wouldn’t do this year–we asked those involved in the catechumenate to join the parish in the ADVENTure series during Advent.  This is a series of outreach activities.  I stressed to the sponsors that they needed to go with the candidates and encourage them to participate.  This worked for the first week then it fell apart.

Meanwhile the team used the first week of Advent to reflect on the past year and to look ahead.  We felt pretty good about the focus on lectio but decided that we would try one session a month focused on “church” questions about the “what’s this?” and the “why’s that?” questions. People really yearn for that and don’t seem to think they are “learning” unless they understand these things.

We (I with the team response, “OK let’s try it”) decided to move the meetings to Sundays in 2012. We’ve done so but numbers have not increased.  They seem to have fallen off.    That’s because we have two meeting times:  9:00, during the 9am service, and one at 11:15, during that service.  Participation as been sporadic but  the 9 has been slowly growing.  It also seems like fewer numbers because of the two times rather than one.  Some weeks we have no participants at one or the other meeting.  Fortunately the leaders have faith and stick with me.

One member has left the group to take a Thursday eve class on the Episcopal church.  She is still in the catechumenate even though she doesn’t come to the meetings.  She is following her path.  Her sponsor is staying with her.

We do not have candidates for the Rite of Enrollment this year even though we do have a candidate for Confirmation.  She was baptized at the Vigil last year (the Bishop was not here).  My initial judgement at the time was that she was not ready.  She was.  As I have seen her involvement in the church this year, I am convinced that she is ready to celebrate confirmation.  I approached her about it at Christmas.  She wants to.  I told her I want her to meet with the Bishop prior to confirmation.  She will keep the same sponsor.

God continues to teach me what it means to honor the unique paths of each and how to coordinate all of these in the “church.”  Flexibility and openness are key.