Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner With Your Children

The Archdiocese of Hartford is participating in the Family Day Dinner, initiated by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Statistics show that children and adolescents are much less likely to abuse alcohol, drugs and tobacco when their families regularly share meals together.

This is an opportunity for families throughout the Archdiocese to come together for a meal on Monday, September 26, 2011. We are encouraging every family in the Archdiocese to take the time to be together, share a meal, and enjoy each other's company.

Check out our website - http://www.orehartford.org/ - which includes suggestions for parish religious education programs (in English and Spanish) and copies of a poster (8 1/2 by 11) (also in English and Spanish). The Archdiocesan website - http://www.archdioceseofhartford.org/ - contains copies of Archbishop Mansell's letter to parishes, prayers, bulletin notices, homily hints, and other helpful articles.

Let us know how it is implemented in your parish. We would like to feature some families in the various publications of the Archdiocese. Contact Pat Keck - pkeck@adh-ore.org or 860-243-9465 - with the names of families who would be interested in sharing their experiences of Family Day.

Early Childhood Religion Readiness Webinar

A webinar for kindergarten teachers, pre-school catechists, teachers, principals and catechetical leaders on early childhood religious education will be presented Wednesday, September 21, 3:30-5 pm (EST) and repeating Saturday, September 24, 11 am-12:30 pm (EST).

The event is the first in a series hosted by RCL Benzier.

The webinar will be offered by faculty from the University of Dayton's early childhood program and from the university's early childhood demonstration school, the Bombeck Family Learning Center.

Each webinar session is limited to 100 computers. Catechists, DREs, parents, teachers and pastors are encouraged to gather in locales to view the webinar as a group.

Registration will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

The deadline for registration is September 16. If interested, send an email to Dan Mulhall, dmulhall@rclbenziger.com, to receive a webinar invitation and access code. Participants will need access to a computer with speakers and be able to receive downloads in a timely manner.

Catechetical Sunday

Catechetical Sunday is being celebrated across the country on September 18, 2011.



The theme this year is "Do This in Memory of Me".



Free downloadable resources (clipart, poster, commissioning ceremony, homily hints, bulletin notices, articles, in-services for catechists/teachers, prayers, intergenerational retreat, etc.) are available at http://www.usccb.org/ and look for "Catechetical Sunday" in the right column.



This is a wonderful opportunity to honor your catechists and better catechize the whole parish on The Eucharist.

Getting Started as a Catechist - Free Webinars

As the new catechetical year approaches, catechists are focusing their attention on how to best engage their students in faith formation. In the United States alone, roughly 150,000 catechists are new to the job each year! With that in mind, Joe Paprocki (remember him? - he was our keynoter at last year's Congress) will once again be hosting a series of free Webinars through Loyola Press called "Getting Started as a Catechist."



He will be hosting four webinars in the series, each focused on teaching a different age group. All will air from 8 pm to 9 pm, EST.

• August 17 (teaching primary age children, grades 1-3)




• August 24 (teaching intermediate age children, grades 4-7)




• August 30 (teaching junior high and high school)




• September 6 (teaching adult faith formation)

In these webinars, you will look at the basic skills of being a catechist, how to plan effective lessons, ways to lead compelling prayer, tips on how to organize a variety of activities, and how to maintain order and discipline in the learning environment, in addition to other topics, all tailored to the specific age group you are preparing to teach.

These webinars are free and give catechists, and those interested in becoming catechists, the opportunity to learn more about this wonderful vocation from the comfort of your own computer.

For more information or to register, or to see what else Joe has to offer, go to his blog - http://www.catechistsjourney.com/.

Getting Started as a Catechist - Free Webinars!