By Rita McInerney

The Office of Religious Education has the responsibility for providing the people of the archdiocese of Atlanta with learning opportunities and resources helpful in fulfilling their commitment to make the Gospel message the motivating force of their daily living.

Under the direction of Tom Brassington, the staff begins the new season with several areas underlined for special focus. There will be an effort made, he says, “to aggressively network better with parishes in the rural area. Sometimes we need to be called to accountability by parishes if they don’t perceive us ministering to them in the way we should be. And vice versa.”

Another “big thrust” this year will be teacher formation. This will be in light of the proposed policy for minimum qualifications for teachers of religion from kindergarten through 12^th grade for both elementary and high school parish and school programs.

A third area of emphasis will be youth ministry. Brassington said the department will be examining its present program in the light of a total youth ministry for the parish. To be determined is how individual youth ministry programs relate to a total youth ministry model nationally. He is included to favor a model combining study with spiritual and social components, a program more formational in nature than a learning-only program.

New to the staff, as of July 1, are Bob Melevin, consultant for catechist formation; Laurie Boddie, consultant for youth and young adult ministry, and Kathleen Williams, media resources coordinator. They joined Sister Lorraine Masucci, R.S.M., and Sister Carleen Lynch, C.S.J. Stephanie Story, typist-bookkeeper, rounds out the ORE staff.

Melevin is spending a good amount of his time getting out and meeting people in the parishes. He is used to traveling. He came to Atlanta from the Diocese of Las Cruces, N. Mex., which was established in 1982 and covers 44,483 square miles, mostly desert. He was there for two years as the first director of religious education for Bishop Richard Ramirez. During that time he put 80,000 miles on his car’s speedometer getting about the territory located close to the Mexican border.

In the few months he was been on the job at the Catholic Center he has tried to get out to some of the rural parishes not already utilizing the catechist program to find out how the office can help. He finds the people “glad to see we’re willing to go to them,” He prefers going out to the people to sitting behind a desk, he says.

Plans are being made to offer catechist certification course opportunities in five areas: sacraments, Scripture, morality and conscience formation, prayer, and church doctrine, he says. They will be offered on a regional basis.

Much of his work here has to do with the Loyola University Institute for Ministry Extension program and the Professional Ministry Certification program being offered by the ORE. The Loyola program, now in its third year, has an enrollment of 40 people, including the 15 beginning this month. Many pursuing this master’s degree program are religious education directors in their parishes; others teach in the Catholic schools.

Each year the course involves three-hour classes once a week for 10 sessions with outside reading and a term paper required. The 10-course program which leads to the graduate degree in religious education or pastoral studies covers the Old and New Testament, grace and christology, basic teachings of the church, sacraments and morality, culture, and the economy.

Emphasis in the Loyola program, Melevin mentions, is not only growth in knowledge but also in personal growth. Students often find that the real challenge the program presents is how it calls them to evaluate themselves, he says.

Another of his responsibilities in the ministry certification program, a two-year, eight weekend program geared to those people looking for background and skills in religious education, pastoral services, youth and family ministries.

A “good experience” Melevin had while working in New Mexico was completing a mini-pastoral course, an introduction to the theology and culture of Mexican-Americans, at the Mexican-American Cultural Center in San Antonio. He will be able to put this experience to work when he and Sister Pilar Dalmau, A.C.J., develop models and programs in catechist formation for the Hispanic apostolate. About 75 percent of the people in the Las Cruces diocese were Hispanic, he says.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish education at Marian College in Indianapolis, and did graduate work in adult education at Indiana University. He received a master’s degree in pastoral theology from the University of San Francisco.

It’s been two years since there has been a full-time staffer for youth in the ORE. So Laurie Boddie has been doing a lot of “networking” since her arrival. This has taken her out to many of the parishes to discover what youth ministers are doing and what they might need from her office.

On the young adult level, she is beginning the same process, seeking to learn what programs and activities are already in place. She says an archdiocesan board for young adults with the focus on parish and archdiocesan programs and retreats is in the planning stage.

This Saturday at a Catholic Center session she will have a chance to meet and inform parish youth ministers about what’s available for professional enrichment and training. Part of her responsibility is to provide ongoing formation.

Concern for justice is an integral part of the whole Gospel and must be part of life style teaching, Miss Boddie believes. For teenagers, as well as for many adults, the bishps’ pastorals are difficult to understand and must be made available in terms they can follow. The messages of the pastorals, she is convinced, “need to spill over into our prayer life, our life style.”

Major events for the young people of the archdiocese that she will be leading will the SEARCH retreats to be held Oct. 3-5; Jan. 30-Feb. 1, and April 3-5. These weekends, which she describes as a spinoff from Cursillo, are for youths between 16 and 19 and offer a spiritual experience for teens eager to become active Catholic adults. The Youth Rally, a popular spring event, and the summer Christian Leadership Institute are other responsibilities. One of her priorities, she declares, is to get information on the programs out to the parishes as early as possible.

Her experiences in working with drug victims and battered women has made her deeply sensitive to “the kids who end up being the silent victims” of their parents’ situation. She has seen that children who are exposed to this type of behavior are prone to continue this cycle of abuse and addiction. She wants to help these young victims and believes part of the helping is in informing, so destructive situations can be recognized and assistance sought.

Miss Boddie came to Atlanta after six years in the Midwest. She worked for three years in South Bend, Ind., in youth ministry, family catechesis, continuing education and training for catechist certification. The last three years she spent at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Saginaw, Mich., as a member of the pastoral team. There her duties included liturgical leadership, education for adults, family and youth, and Christian service. In this latter area she worked directly with the needy through a food pantry ministry. In both assignments she was involved with mixed racial groups.

She graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies and psychology and worked in the Diocese of Richmond before entering graduate school at the University of Notre Dame from which she received a master’s degree in divinity.

Kathleen Williams, media resources coordinator, describes herself as the behind-the-scenes administrator who makes sure all the pieces get put together.

She is responsible for assembling, cataloging and distributing the audio visuals and books used in religious education. She works with the consultants getting the material in order and sees that the catechists have all the materials they need. She also designed the booklet for the ministry certification program.

As a second year student in the Loyola program, she sees her work “as part of my educational process…helping me in the discernment of my future ministry.”

“I hope to find the opportunity to minister to the people in the archdiocese by enabling them to find the resources to do their job,” she says. It is her responsibility to put together new and updated film strips, slides, video tapes, cassettes and to maintain a general library of religious topics including sample textbooks. All this is available to parish ministries. Books in the library are available to individual borrowers, she adds.

Her background includes positions with the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce convention and visitors bureau, the Ritz Carlton in downtown Atlanta and a Washington, D.C. hotel. She brings experience in working with people and organization skills and administration logistics to her new job.

At her parish, Corpus Christi in Stone Mountain, she is active with the singles group, and has been a member of the retreat group for both men and women. She sings second soprano with the folk group and participates with the clown ministry.

A “Navy brat,” she is the daughter of George and Kathleen Williams of St. Oliver Plunkett parish in Snellville. Her father was a lab technician in the U.S. Navy and is with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Her two brothers, Michael and James attend the University of Steubenville in Ohio.

She attended high school in Italy and was a theater major at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA.

Sister Lorraine Masucci will be providing formation experiences for the people responsible for adult education in each parish. She also provides experience of faith development and spiritual enrichment for the separated and divorced.

Sister Carleen Lynch will be offering programs of enrichment in formation for pre-school and elementary coordinators and will also begin to develop an awareness for family catechetics.

In the coming year Brassington said his staff hopes to affirm the catechetical cooperation that has existed among directors and coordinators of religious education, and youth ministers with their pastors, “so we can all speak the truth in love.”