By Paula Day

Information, formation, transformation are more than gimmicky catchwords for Kathy Clark, staff member of the archdiocesan Office of Religious Education. For her the three words capsulize the goal of her area of specialization, adult religious education.

The 32-year-old Ms. Clark sees a natural progression from head to heart to hand – from authentic knowledge of one’s faith to that knowledge forming one’s attitudes and influencing one’s actions.

A single parent, mother of four children, ages four to 12, Kathy Clark brings a grass-roots parish experience to her position. For the four years previous to beginning August 1 in the ORE, she was adult education coordinator for St. Joseph’s parish in Athens. She also co-directed the parish RCIA program and, for one year, was its director of religious education. On a fellowship from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for graduate study in adult education she earned her master’s degree in education with specialties in adult religious education and continuing professional education.

Illustrating how information, formation and transformation work together, Ms. Clark recounts a personal experience.

“I was directing a program on the Rite of Reconciliation geared to adults whose children were preparing for their first penance. We talked about people’s experiences, and there was some processing of old hurts. Three weeks later one of the participants came up to me after Mass and said, ‘I want to thank you. I didn’t want to come to the class but did because of my child. As a result after 12 years, I went to confession for the first time.’”

“I was uplifted,” Kathy Clark recalls. “It’s an example of how the whole community is affected. Transformative learning not only has an impact on the individual, but on the whole community.”

Ms. Clark added another example. She pointed out that it is one thing to understand the principles of economic justice as set forth in the U.S. bishops’ pastoral, “Economic Justice For All,” and another to let those principles guide one’s hiring practices, budget priorities, buying habits, voting decisions. “Letting that happen is really a conversion experience.”

In order “to determine the ‘state of the union’ of adult religious education” Ms. Clark conducted a survey last fall of those involved in the adult education in all the deaneries of the archdiocese. Only half of those surveyed returned the questionnaire. Of the 40 who did respond, 52 percent of their time is spent exclusively in adult education. Ms. Clark concludes from this that adult education personnel are “wearing many hats.” Directors of religious education, youth ministers, catechists in sacramental preparation programs are some of their other roles. Seventy-seven percent of those who replied are salaried; 71 percent are employed full time. Ms. Clark noted that most of the survey response came from parishes with salaried personnel.

“Adult educators have a basic understanding of how adults learn and of their learning needs.” The majority of respondents cited “on-the-job experience” as their primary means of formation in adult education. However, 50 percent did report having formal training in the field.

Ms. Clark, director Tom Brassington, and consultant for catechist formation Robert Melevin have set two major goals for the Office of Religious Education for the coming year. One is to improve the competence of those involved in religious education in the archdiocese. To do this they are working on a variety of projects.

To meet basic formation needs, the ORE has scheduled workshops geared to equip beginning adult education personnel with fundamental skills. These include skills in program planning, choosing resources and methods, facilitating large and small groups, forming teams, understanding how adults learn, doing good publicity and developing listening and counseling skills.

For those with experience who are seeking further professional competence, the office offers the Loyola Extension program through which educators may gain a certificate or a master’s degree in religious education and pastoral studies.

In late August the ORE will sponsor, in cooperation with the archdiocesan Catholic school office, a major catechetical institute for all parish catechetical personnel, Catholic schools principals and teachers of religion, pastors and other clergy. Set for August 25-27, the institute’s theme will be “Lifelong Learning.”

The ORE staff’s second major goal is to foster adult education as the primary focus for parishes in their catechetical ministry as called for by The National Catechetical Directory. As a step in this direction, Ms. Clark has formed a task force of adult educators from the archdiocese’s deaneries. The group meets each month and hopes to develop adult education guidelines for the archdiocese by early summer.

Rather than providing adult education herself in parishes, Ms. Clark will focus on training parishioners themselves to do the educating. To those adults who say they don’t have the qualifications to help other adults learn, she would say, “Do you have an active faith life and are you willing to share that? If so, we can help you with the skills.”

This is her internship year, Ms. Clark feels. And it is proving to be a busy one. In addition to giving workshops and working with the task force, she is involved in parish consultations, particularly in those parishes with developing adult education programs and in those areas having no programs as yet – helping to get programs started.

She says a love of learning and her own Marriage Encounter and Cursillo experiences helped form her interest in adult education. In the last analysis, however, she says, “Faith gives me the foundation for what I’m doing. All the expertise and learning is important, but it is faith that’s the bottom line. When I stop seeing this as ministry and as just a job, I’d better leave it and go find something else.”