Tri Parish Director of Formation for Children and Catechesis of the Good Shepherd: A Gift to Our Children

We are pleased to introduce our new Tri Parish Director of Formation for Children. Samantha El-Azem will guide the children and parents of our three parishes as they grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are thrilled with her extensive parish experience, her enthusiasm, and her commitment to introducing the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS: a program based on the Montessori methodology). Sam will start July 5 and has written an introduction which follows this announcement.

Thanks to the search committee, who worked for two years to find the right person and is very confident and excited with this decision. In addition to the three priests, committee members were Cindy Schmidt (CK), Maggie Pernice (CK), Barb Abler (Tri Parish Youth Minister), Melita Biese (SB), and Dean Weyer (St. Pius X).

Patience is required as we begin this new journey and details are discerned. The plan is to a multi- continue our traditional method of religious education and, starting in the fall of 2018, to introduce CGS for children ages 3-6, slowly adding levels as the years go on and more people are trained. The traditional classroom methodology will be continued for older children until the transition to CGS for all children is completed; this is year transition.

In the meantime, parish members need to start stepping forward to become trained CGS catechists. There is training in the Milwaukee area coming up very soon, from June 19-27 during the day. There will be other opportunities for training but getting ready for the fall of 2018 means we need to start now.

This is a big task, but our children are worth it and we encourage you to consider making this gift to our youngest parishioners. This is a deeper and more involved way to conduct religious education that is well tested but takes a lot of energy to succeed. Only the cooperation of parishioners can make it succeed. If you think you could do the June training or want more information, please drop Fr. Phil a note soon and he’ll send you the brochure: [email protected] or [email protected].

Welcome to Sam and this new journey we are embarking on under her leadership: we pledge her our support!

Sincerely,
Fr. Phillip, Pastor St. Bernard and Christ King and
Fr. Paul, Pastor St. Pius X