2 minute read
A Look at Our Religious Education and Youth Ministry Programs
— Liz Chock
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No matter your age, there’s always something new to learn about our faith! It’s never too early to start building a strong faith foundation so that our children can understand what it means to be Catholic. Although our Religious Education year was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our catechists have been working hard to provide parents and students with the tools they need to continue their faith education at home.
When students could no longer attend in-person classes, the parish implemented home-learning plans. Kindergarten, first and second-grade students were encouraged to continue working through their book with their parents. Fourth and fifth-grade students used learning resources from the Diocese of Honolulu’s website, which included worksheets, coloring pages and crafts. Religious Education Coordinator Jane Aganus put together packets each week from these resources, and parents were able to access them through Google Drive. Students were also given incentives to complete the activities each week.
“We’d also really try to keep in touch with the families to let them know we are still here for them,” says parishioner Liz Chock, who works with Jane to manage the Religious Education program at Annunciation and Ascension Mission. “We want to make sure they have the tools to continue to teach their children.”
For middle school and high school youth ministry, parents were also provided with learning resources from the parish, and Liz facilitated occasional Zoom chats for the youth to be able to spend time together virtually. The diocesan Director of Young Adult Ministries also sent out online resources for the students — one of these resources was a link to ProjectYM Live, a live nationwide online youth event that streamed every Sunday at 2 p.m. HST. The program also provided a parent discussion guide to encourage further conversation.
“It was great,” Liz says. “We had the kids go onto this livestream event, and there was age-appropriate content for them, including talks, online games and worship songs.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming Religious Education year, the parish is planning to continue remote sessions and suspend in-person gatherings for students at this time.
“We will work to provide parents with good digital resources that they can easily do at home,” Liz says.
“If a family does not have a computer or printer and needs printouts, we can arrange pickup for them. We will keep parents apprised of the situation if anything changes. And by all means, please do not hesitate to call or email us! We want to continue to engage with both parents and students.
“Jane and I would like to thank the parents and students who were able to take the time to continue their religious education during this challenging time of COVID, and even work and study from home at the same time!” she adds. “We understand and know it is a very difficult time to rearrange one’s life and schedules, and we really appreciate it.”
For more information about Religious Education and Youth Ministry at the parish, please contact Liz Chock at annunciationwaimeare@gmail.com, or call or text 808-987-5630 after 6 p.m. and anytime on weekends.
