Print Issue: July 4, 2002

Religious Education Program Names New Staff; Narrows Focus

Kersti Payton, Senior Director, Young Adult and Adult Ministry Sorangel Govin, Director of Children's Ministry and Initiation Leonardo Giraldo Barbara Garvin, Senior Director, Children and Youth Ministry Berta O'Mara, Hispanic Ministry Coordinator

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - Participants in the religious education programs of the Archdiocese of Atlanta will see some new faces and a new focus.

Three new people and a restructuring of some former positions, plus changes within the department, went into effect July 1.

"We're going to be doing all of the same things in religious education we always have with new people in different combinations and different focuses," said Deacon Lloyd Sutter, senior administrator of the department. "Probably the most significant is the substitution of a catechist formation program for the pastoral ministry formation program."

Instead of offering the two-year pastoral ministry formation program, the department will now offer a one-year intermediate and advanced catechist formation program, which will meet more often than the former one did, and will focus exclusively on catechesis. In addition, a summer course will be developed, which will give individuals, who are nominated by pastors and have necessary catechetical certification, the practical leadership, administrative and budgeting skills needed to direct or coordinate parish religious education programs.

The new structure also creates a more integrated framework for providing services to the Spanish and English speaking communities.

"It's a narrow and more comprehensive focus on catechesis or religious education in new programs and the functional integration of Spanish and English specialists organized along age group service lines," he said. "Spanish and English speaking people working with the same age group will be working together with a focused attempt to profit from each other's strengths and avoid each other's weaknesses. We can share programs that work...We don't have to reinvent the wheel each time...We've got a lot to learn. It will serve the diocese better by each of us learning what the other culture has to teach us."

New staff are Kersti Payton, Sorangel Govin and Leonardo Giraldo.

Payton was named Senior Director, Young Adult and Adult Ministry, which covers college students not served by an established campus ministry program. In her role, she will also serve young adults, both single and married, in their 20s and 30s, and those over 40.

Govin was named Director of Children's Ministry and Initiation, working with both Spanish and English speaking communities, while Giraldo will take the new position of Hispanic youth and young adult consultant.

Payton, who has a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Dallas and a master of theological studies degree from the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., comes to the department from the religion department faculty of St. Pius X High School. She will oversee all archdiocesan catechetical and other program activities for Catholics who have graduated from high school.

"I'm really excited. I see it as a challenge and a mission and I feel it's a great opportunity that God has given me to serve him," said Payton. Her first priority, she said, will be to continue to build on the young adult programs developed by former directors of young adult ministry, Janice Givens and Cindee Case, working closely with Giraldo in Hispanic ministry, and " just to increase young adult ministry throughout the entire diocese, ministries within parishes as well as on the diocesan level."

Born in Cuba, Govin formerly served for six years as director of religious education for English and Spanish speaking students at St. Patrick Church, Norcross, where she was also responsible for children's initiation. In her position she will assist parishes with religious education programs for elementary school students, as well as children's initiation for students below high school age who are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation. She will be responsible for implementation of the archdiocesan guidelines for the sacraments of initiation and penance as they relate to Catholic children who received infant baptism. She holds an associate's degree in business from Miami Dade Community College and is a graduate of the archdiocesan pastoral ministry formation program.

"It's very scary but at the same time I'm very excited. It's a new challenge and new opportunities to really develop myself and give back to the diocese, especially being bilingual," Govin said. "I'm excited about coming in and doing what needs to be done to give people out in the field a lot of support because I know I've benefited from that a lot."

She hopes to be a liaison between the archdiocese and Anglo and Hispanic communities where "a lot of times communication falls off the edge." As the Hispanic community grows rapidly, she believes she'll be working closely with Berta O'Mara, the new coordinator of Hispanic ministry, in Spanish program development. "Probably both of us will work together in developing these programs...working together to bring these communities together on the same level."

Govin is bilingual. "Instead of having to have (both) a Spanish and English (speaking) person do that work we have one person," Deacon Sutter said.

Giraldo holds a degree in humanistic classics from the University of Salamanca, Spain, and a bachelor's in philosophy from the University of Regina Apostolorum, Rome, Italy, and has worked with youth and young adult ministry in Colombia, Italy, Spain and Mexico. He will work with department members in youth and young adult ministry to develop and implement catechetical, sacramental formation and other programs to serve the needs of Spanish speaking communities.

His role is aided by a shift in emphasis in Hispanic ministry within the archdiocese. Recently, funds formerly devoted to a rural program have been reallocated to a pilot program for parishes with large Hispanic communities with significant catechetical and sacramental formation needs for young Spanish speaking adults.

Giraldo is excited to move from Mexico to Atlanta and begin developing Spanish young adult ministry here. As many immigrants experience loneliness, he stressed the importance of the church welcoming them and leading them to Christ. There are 49 churches with Hispanic young adult ministries, he said, and religious education programs have been drawing increasing numbers. "My first goal is to unite all the churches, to unite all the leaders working with young adults and to achieve this working within the hierarchy of the church."

Barbara Garvin, former archdiocesan director of youth ministry, will now serve as Senior Director, Children and Youth Ministry. Her team will deliver archdiocesan catechetical, sacramental formation and other programs for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as for middle school and high school youth. Deacon Sutter reports to Kathi Stearns, vice chancellor, and has overall responsibility for the department, including Christian initiation for youth and adults, catechist certification program, catechist formation program development and administration, Archdiocesan Evangelization Committee, and archdiocesan extraordinary minister of Communion training program.

Berta O'Mara, former Hispanic children's ministry consultant, was named Hispanic Ministry Coordinator and will assist Deacon Sutter with administration of all catechetical, sacramental formation and other programs for Spanish speaking communities. She will also be responsible for the Hispanic catechist certification, sacramental guidelines and extraordinary minister of Communion training programs.

Deacon Sutter said that the department will narrow its focus to devote all of its efforts to catechetical, sacramental formation and other programs, whether undertaken in support of parishes or delivered by the department directly. Broader evangelization efforts will be undertaken by the Archdiocesan Evangelization Committee. Deacon Sutter and Garvin, Payton and O'Mara are members.

The religious education department's mission is to serve the archbishop, promoting lifelong formation in the Catholic faith through age-appropriate catechesis and remaining faithful to Christ as presented through the teaching authority of the church, Sutter said. Its clients are clergy, religious education staffs and other archdiocesan agencies, groups and individuals. "Our department's primary role is to be technical assistance representatives to classroom teachers or religious education program managers at the parish level," Deacon Sutter said.

Specialized resources the department uses developed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops include: "Go and Make Disciples"; "Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium"; "Our Hearts Are Burning within Us"; "Sons and Daughters of the Light"; "Renewing the Vision"; "Putting Children and Families First"; "National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry"; "Welcome the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity"; and "A Time to Listen...A Time to Heal."

For more information, contact Deacon Sutter at (404) 697-5115; Garvin at (404) 885-7491; Govin at (404) 885-7221; Payton at (404) 885-7290; O'Mara at (404) 538-0595; or Giraldo at (404) 885-7412.