Religious Education Policies

bkenney27

Apparently there is a policy in place that prohibits children from participating in the Children's Choir if they are not either registered in Religious Education or a Catholic School (thereby waiving the requirement for Religious Education.) Has anyone else heard of a such a policy? Again, I'm fairly new to Directing Music programs and my experience is limited to this one Parish, but this caught me by surprise.

Andrew Motyka

I've heard of similar policies. I think the idea is to make sure that the students are being formed in their faith as well as getting involved liturgically (I can't think of a parent that would want the latter without the former, though).

An unfair side effect is that it excludes homeschoolers.

WJA

But, see, Matthew 19:14.

ryand

What if they are registered in the parish (and the family attends mass regularly)? That might (idk) answer the homeschoolers issue...

Adam Wood

Bad policy, as it specifically precludes the possibility of children's choir becoming a tool for evangelism and church growth.

bkenney27

Bad policy, as it specifically precludes the possibility of children's choir becoming a tool for evangelism and church growth.

That's exactly my problem with it.

WJA

Who is in charge of enforcing it?

ronkrisman

evangelism and church growth

= non-denominational mega-church model and jargon

Adam Wood

Who is in charge of enforcing it?

Busybody parents of other children.

Adam Wood

evangelism and church growth

= non-denominational mega-church model and jargon

Sorry. uh....

It's a bad policy because it excludes you from welcoming all of God's people into the journey of faith in your community.

ronkrisman

I'm not defending the children's choir policy, just saying that Catholics are not evangelicals and don't use the term "evangelism."

Adam Wood

http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/

Adam Wood

http://www.jp2shrine.org/jp/en/ev/benedict.html

Adam Wood

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20111016_nuova-evang_en.html

Adam Wood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Council_for_Promoting_the_New_Evangelization

Adam Wood

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=catholic+evangelism

ronkrisman

Thanks for supporting my point, Adam, with your links. Catholics ordinarily refer to "evangelization," not "evangelism"

And, no, they're not the same thing.

chonak

bkenney27, if this is about a homeschooling family: there's a diocesan office for homeschoolers; maybe they can help out somehow.

Adam Wood

Thanks for supporting my point, Adam, with your links. Catholics ordinarily refer to "evangelization," not "evangelism"

And, no, they're not the same thing.

wow

CHGiffen

Imagine, if each of these lines

were a separate post by me,

all in the space of 9 minutes or less,

then I might be guilty of "padding" the thread,

or others might think there was some interesting activity in the thread,

or someone might think I were guilty padding my own post count.

Adam Wood

or someone might think I were guilty padding my own post count.

I'M SO CLOSE TO 4000!

Point taken.
I was just so...
flabbergasted.
flummoxed.
flamboozled.

matthewj

Padding what now?

matthewj

Ohh... post count.

matthewj

900.

Ben Yanke

1,738. And I'm not padding, btw.

Adam Wood

I prefer padding my voting record and my thanks count

Vote Up

154,937

Vote Down

Thanked by 7Adam Wood Adam Wood Adam Wood Adam Wood Adam Wood Adam Wood Adam Wood

Blaise

Let me add a comment to further pad Adam's voting record......

Blaise

Now, that being said, I do not know how, practically, you can enforce such a rule.

Many parish choirs are fortunate to have any singers.

CharlesW

Good point. I have some singers really getting up in age. Almost one third of my choir is at another parish because they don't like our pastor and say they will come back when he retires. I keep telling them we could have much worse, if they would only think about it, and we should count our blessings. Politics. Yech!

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