The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
The vacation Bible schools season has ended and again this year several parishes have experimented with formats that deviate from a day camp model.
Perhaps none in the diocese are as elaborate as Summer Celebration, a five-day program sponsored jointly by St. Edward Church in Texarkana, Ark., and Sacred Heart Church in Texarkana, Texas.
“This program has been very successful here,” said Kelli Nugent, director of religious education at St. Edward Church. “We have a very well-established faith formation community that wants to learn the faith and wants to be well-catechized in order to teach their children.”
Summer Celebration, held July 20-24, encompassed catechesis from a variety of angles. About 150 children from 4 years old through sixth grade made up the Bible school student body, taught by 30 adults and assisted by 75 seventh-grade through college-age helpers.
Two guest speakers delivered three evenings of talks for both English-speaking and Hispanic adults. Jon Leonetti, Catholic author and radio host, addressed Anglo parishioners. His talks on Jesus, the saints, prayer and the sacraments attracted an average of nearly 125 congregants each night. Father Daniel Gonzales, pastor of St. Catherine of Sienna Parish in Atlanta, Texas, part of the Diocese of Tyler, spoke to Hispanic parishioners. His topics included discipleship and evangelization, drawing an average crowd of 45 per night.
Mass was celebrated each evening July 21-24 and dinner was served July 20-23 preceding the evening’s agenda. And, as in past years, a pool party was held on the final night for which Christus St. Michael Health System donated use of the hospital’s outdoor pool.
Nugent couldn’t pin down when or why the parishes opted for programming in the evening, estimating it went back at least a decade. She said the event, which takes months to plan, is something the two parish communities have come to look forward to as the model holds something for everyone from campers to volunteers to adults.
“We don’t want something where the adults drop off the kids and leave,” she said.
Chris Langley, director of religious education at St. Peter the Fisherman Church in Mountain Home shares this outlook. After 15 years of the program being held during the daytime, participation was declining sharply. About 10 years ago, she switched to evenings to try and reverse the trend and after a couple shaky years, started to see participation steadily increase.
“It’s easier for people to volunteer and it’s easier for working parents to bring their children in the evening,” she said. “It’s really worked out well.”
Langley’s program this year, held July 28 to Aug. 1, began with Mass at 5:45 p.m. at which the children sang songs from their VBS lessons. Each night also included a closing session where the day’s lesson was recapped. The local Knights of Columbus council sponsored a cookout Aug. 1 to close the event.
All told, 45 kids attended and were taught in part by Joseph de Obegozo, a diocesan seminarian. Langley said his participation lent a special facet to the week’s instruction.
“I stepped back and let Joseph be the leader and he did a wonderful job interacting with the kids,” she said. “For the other young people, being around a seminarian gave them a look at someone their own age following a vocation. I think a lot of them came away thinking, ‘This is a young person like me. This is OK.’”
Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church in Little Rock was new to the evening format this year. Laura Humphries, parish life and stewardship coordinator, said the decision to try it was partially due to ongoing renovation work which made meeting space an issue. The event was also shortened to two nights, June 16 and 17, included a component for youth and an opportunity for adult discussion.
Humphries said student enrollment was about a third of what it had been the previous year when the event was held during the day. As well, only a handful of adults showed up for the discussion, but those who attended were positive about the experience.
“We had some really good discussion,” she said, adding that despite the low turnout, she isn’t discouraged and is open to the possibility of scheduling future faith formation events in the evening, particularly for high school students.
“There’s nothing like seeing young children taking in God’s word and seeing how excited they get,” she said.
Langley, who also worked through lean attendance right after switching to the evening format, steadfastly shared Humphries’ view. She said the biggest mistake a parish can make in evaluating a program is to go on attendance alone.
“Churches have to get off of the numbers game,” she said. “Everything is judged a success or failure just by how many were there, which is a shame. I judge the success of our program by how well we reach people.”
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