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Is your RCIA open all year-round?​

Embracing “Pyjama Catechesis” — Connecting with Seekers beyond COVID-19
by John McGlynn

Let’s be honest—many of our parishes do a poor job of connecting with and communicating with their communities. Not just with their regular parishioners, but especially with those whom we want to attract and bring into our communities—our seekers, our catechumens, and our candidates.
One of the inadvertent gifts of COVID-19 was bringing this challenge into sharp relief and forcing us to respond and engage with the vast array of communications tools at our disposal. For parishes that already had a good handle on communications and technology, the leap to streaming Mass and online meetings wasn’t too difficult, but for many parishes, it became a trial by fire. I’m happy to say that of those parishes I’ve seen personally, many were able to weather this storm well. But what of going forward?


Your RCIA process can’t go back to “business as usual”

I like to hope that all of us in initiation ministry have learned that going back to “business as usual” isn’t going to work. Not in the near-term as many communities still deal with COVID-19 restrictions, but even after we have a vaccine, “business as usual” just isn’t going to get us where we need in our ministry, for both us and our seekers.

We truly live in a blessed time when a small device in most everyone’s pocket can literally connect us with the world. Yet for all the ease and convenience these devices offer, the institutional Church has been quite slow in adopting communications technologies and strategies to reach out to the faithful or to those seeking faith. An announcement in the parish bulletin is no longer sufficient.

​We all understand that “God meets us where we’re at,” but Church isn’t always there with us. Sometimes I feel like Church is a mile behind yelling at us to come back. It’s a shame that it took a pandemic to show us that as Church we can’t just stand there yelling at the road ahead, we need to run to catch up. Many parishes have done this. Many parishes are doing this. But some still need to run to catch up.
Picture

​The tools your RCIA process needs in this new moment


So what is my point? Simple—many of the tools and techniques we’re being forced to embrace because of stay-at-home orders and social distancing are tools we should continue to keep and use even once this pandemic crisis is over. There is more than one way to deliver catechesis. There is more than one way to reach out and talk with seekers, catechumens, and candidates. There is more than one way in which the parish community can connect with those seekers. We cannot and should not limit the initiation process to Thursday nights at 7:00 pm (or whenever it was you used to gather regularly for catechesis).
​
I was talking with a colleague recently about how the participants in our processes were doing so well with our “Zoom” sessions. Engagement was better, conversations were easier and more relaxed. In a lot of ways our sessions seemed better. Part of this, we realised, was because people seemed more comfortable in their own homes. There was no need to dress up, go out, arrange childcare, or interrupt their already busy schedules. They could join in our sessions while still in their pyjamas! Thus we coined the term, “pyjama catechesis.” Put another way—we were meeting them where they were at. Not only that, in a lot of ways, it was easier for us as catechists too.

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​New times call for new approaches

To be clear—there is no substitution for a face-to-face meeting nor for gathering a group of people in the same room together. But it’s not the only way, nor should it be the only way. Years ago when I started in initiation ministry I remember there would be seekers coming to us wanting to join us or wanting to complete their sacraments, only to be turned away because they couldn’t make it on Thursday nights, or because their job or their school or their children prevented them from attending group sessions regularly. We would say to ourselves, “If they really wanted it, they would make the time.” While there is a certain truth to that which cannot be denied, it’s also a simplistic, naïve, and dismissive approach that is not worthy of us as Church.

The Holy Spirit has called these people to our door. We, like Christ, need to make the effort to meet them where they are at. If e-mail, text messages, group chats, live stream Masses or Zoom meetings help us to get there, we should continue to make use of these tools even once the pandemic crisis is over. Becoming “fishers of men” is not what it used to be. It’s not always as simple as throwing out a net and waiting for the fish to come. There are a number of ways to catch a fish, all dependent on a variety of factors.

If we limit ourselves to just one way of fishing, we limit the catch. If we actively reach out and offer alternatives as needed, we can reel them in.


 John McGlynn - TEAM RCIA
This article appears on the TEAM RCIA website. 
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  • Mystery and Mission
  • Archive
    • Conversion, Healing, Penance
    • Desiderio Desideravi
    • In Search of Peace
    • Word of God Sunday
    • Living Lent >
      • Forty Lenten Ideas
      • Lent is a time to grow in the faith
      • Walking the Stations of the Cross this Lent
    • Saints and Souls >
      • Saintly Endeavours
      • Let the Dead Have November
      • Why We Pray for the Faithful Departed
    • Lay Liturgical Ministry >
      • Talents for Ministry
      • Nine Steps to Becoming a Better Lector
      • Ministers of Communion​
    • Music Matters >
      • Repertoire and Renewal
      • Liturgical Song and Evangelisation ​
      • 5 tips for effective music ministry
    • 50 Days of Easter >
      • Celebrating Easter's 50 Days
      • Aspects of the Ascension
      • Reflections for Pentecost Sunday
    • Saint Joseph >
      • Patris corde (With a Father's Heart)
      • Celebrating St Joseph in the Liturgy
      • St Joseph in Scripture
    • Christmas 2020 >
      • On the Meaning and Importance of the Nativity Scene
      • Botticelli - The Mystical Nativity
      • The Season of Christmas
    • Planning for Christmas 2020 >
      • Planning Christmas Masses 2020
      • Re-emerging With Purpose
      • Beyond Welcome: Show, Don't Tell
    • Signs and Symbols >
      • Sacramental Signs and Symbols
      • The cross reminds us of the sacrifices of the Christian life
      • Signs & Symbols: A Reflection
    • Looking Forward >
      • Solemnities on Saturdays
      • Our Family at Mass in the Age of Technology
      • Is your RCIA open all year-round? - Embracing 'Pyjama Catechesis'
    • Eucharist as Living Memory >
      • Memory is not Something Private
      • So what's wrong with a Virtual Mass?
      • The Middle of Nowhere
    • What have we learned from lockdown? >
      • Church After Coronavirus - New Understandings of Social MIssion
      • Virus and Vocation
      • Real Presence and Virtual Liturgies
    • Celebrating Holy Week in COVID times​ >
      • Coronavirus and the Eucharist
      • How to celebrate the liturgy when there is no Mass
      • Holy Week At Home
    • Solidarity and Unity >
      • Taking Communion to those who Self-Isolate
      • Peace and Solidarity
      • United to Christ We Are Never Alone
    • Preparing for Lent >
      • The Weeks of Lent in the Australian Imagination
      • How to Prepare for Lent
      • It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Lent
    • Liturgy with Children >
      • Using the Lectionary for Masses with Children
      • Praying Morning Prayer with Primary School Children
      • Directory for Masses with Children
    • Praying For Rain >
      • National Drought Prayer Campaign
      • Praying for Rain - Prayer Resources
      • A Ritual of Lament
    • Christian Initiation >
      • CATECHUMENATE - Rolling Year Round
      • Inculturating Christian Life in the Digital World
      • Tweens and Teens in the RCIA
    • Season of Creation >
      • Season of Creation September 1 - October 4
      • The Cosmic Song of 'Laudato Si'
    • Ordinary Time >
      • The Season of Ordinary Time
      • Sunday - The Original Feast
      • Luke's Gospel
    • Saints and Feasts >
      • Mary and the Saints
      • Saints and Martyrs
      • Who Are the Saints?
    • Eucharist >
      • The Centrality of the Eucharist
      • Space Matters
      • Can you drink the cup?
    • Altar Servers
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