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St. Mary's Parish - Stewardship Program
Parish Education Program
PEP Program Overview PEP
is a unique religious education program that has been in place in
St. Mary’s for over 20 years. What makes it unique is its
focus on Adult Education. The premise behind PEP is that parents
are the primary religious educators of their children. If this is
true, then it is the parent we should be educating and the education
of the children will follow as the family lives the faith. In many
or even most religious education programs, children are dropped
off with the assumption that the parish has the responsibility of
teaching the faith. While it is true the parish has a responsibility
to teach the faith, it does not necessarily have a responsibility
to teach the faith to children. When that is the focus, the child
whose family practices the faith gives that child a context for
what is being taught and much of the program will be meaningful.
But if the child is from a family that does not practice the faith,
the lessons are being taught with no context and are as meaningless
as a language being taught without speaking. ATTENDANCE Because this is the focus, parents are expected to attend classes at the same time the children attend. Since the primary audience is older, and the fruit of the meetings will be evident daily once it is in the home, it is not necessary to have classes as often. PEP meets once a month for 8 months of the year. At least one parent is required to enroll in an adult program and attend every time the child or children are present. Partly because the program is well entrenched, and partly because parents recognize their role, attendance is excellent, with just about 100% of parents enrolling and more than 2/3 always in attendance. Attendance is still a critical concern because if there are only 8 meetings, any absence is significant. For this reason stronger focus should be placed on the adult component and follow up will be made every month to missing parents. Follow up, sending the parent material with an email that reinforced the month’s theme so it can be discussed at home, has resulted in excellent attendance. All attendees must be registered with the Parishes of St Mary’s or St James. PEP STRUCTURE The way PEP is structured is as follows: There is a fee of $45.00 for each family and a discounted price, $20.00, for any parish member that would like to take an adult course that does not have any additional family members. Adults are offered choices among several courses. A course called Basic PEP is always offered and is required for the first two years. This course familiarizes the parents with the staff and allows them to ask questions about dimensions of the faith that have bothered or interested them. In order to free the parents, there are pre-school programs for Nursery (infants and 1 year olds) Toddlers (2 year olds), Tots (3 year olds) and Pre-school (4 year olds.) There are classes for Kindergarten and Grade 1. Grade 2 is First Reconciliation/Communion preparation, and these students and parents meet at additional times. To receive First Communion children should start preparing by starting @ grade one, not waiting until the First Communion year itself. From Grade 3 to Grade 8 the children select from a variety of Clubs. The Clubs this year are listed on your registration form. Confirmation I + II (Confirmtion Schedule TBA) have classes at PEP and additional classes/service projects in preparation for the sacrament. For
more information, please
contact the Director of Religious Education, Sally Lambert
St. Mary's Parish Link to Special Meetings for First Communion and Special Meetings for Confirmation II
For
more information, please
contact the Director of Religious Education, Sally Lambert |