Communicating Faith

Part 2. Baselines

part 2 Baselines In the chapters of Part 2 there is scope for greater flexibility, intimacy, and attention to individuality in communicating faith than in some of the other settings explored later on in this book. In the home and in the parish the quality of the way of life shared and the tone of voice adopted will be much more important than the content of what is conveyed, although this is a matter of degree rather than a radical difference, because these things will also exert a great deal of influence in other settings, too. Watkins reminds us that parenthood and family life transcends all timetables ; a family is a family for twenty-four hours, seven days a week, open for three hundred and sixty five days a year. The family is an enduring place of formation, where communication of faith is pervasive, part and parcel of all we do, taking place, even if unrecognized, in the midst of eating, arguing, embracing, and organizing. As a mother of four children, Watkins is well aware of the challenging pedagogical vocation of homes. She shows how in the fabric of family life there is an intersection between the sacraments of the church and domestic sacramentality. As elsewhere in this book, her specific focus on the home still holds in view the connections between this context and the wider ecclesial and social networks from which any particular home receives guidance, illumination, and challenge. No setting for communicating faith should be seen in isolation, despite the need to be discerning about its special features. As she says, “the home is not a school, nor the kitchen a classroom, nor the bedroom a chapel.” 31 Watkins comments on the task (and privilege) of communicating faith in the home in a way that combines being theologically informed, culturally sensitive, and practically based. She is aware of the potential of the home to communicate faith, but she is not blind to the countervailing pressures exerted by the patterns and norms of behavior prevalent in the cultural context surrounding all homes. Conscious of the importance for faith development of the quality of our conversation, she steers a way that avoids abdicating responsibility for witnessing discipleship, on the one hand, and, on the other, imposing an inappropriate vocabulary and grammar in the informal setting of a home: “We are called to craft a language of traditional faith in the contemporary ordinariness in our home life.” Jónsson too is aware that the parish cannot be limited to its explicit “curriculum ” and planned events, conscious that equally influential will be what is implicit in its life and the way things are done and experienced; indeed, what is omitted also plays a part. A parish priest can ask, “What isn’t being done? Whose voices are not being heard? Which experiences are not being named?” As with Watkins’ treatment of the home, Jónsson shows that while the parish is a reality in its own right, it is only to be understood in communion with the life and mission of the wider church. Tradition, welcome, liturgy, formation, and service are shown to be cornerstones for communicating faith. By his subtle interweaving of attention to his own pastoral realities and insights drawn from theological literature, he emphasizes that a proper perspective is both enriched and limited by closeness to the people one serves. Fed by the church and facing the people of his parish, he displays how to operate with confidence and trust in the midst of flux and uncertainty . Too often there is a wide gap between the official “story” of the faith and how this is received “on the ground.” Fine-sounding principles and ideals espoused by the church can seem far removed from their implementation at the parish and school levels. While it is to be expected, in this dispensation , that there will always be such gaps, it behooves those charged with communicating faith to stay as closely in touch with reality as they can, without losing sight of the ideals toward which they are striving. McGrail offers a useful overview of developments in sacramental preparation for children in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Changes in the self-understanding and mode of being of families, schools, and parishes all impinge on their mutual interaction. In his chapter McGrail helps us to ap32 Baselines preciate some of the operating factors at the local level that...