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Patrick McPartland/Staff Photographer - Father Art Smith, pastor, and Arline Danial, music teacher, co-teach a third-grade music class as part of St. Mary of the Lake School, Hamburg, new collaborative effort combining and creating a seamless community between the church, parochial school, and religious education classes.
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Located near the shoreline of Lake Erie in Hamburg, the people of St. Mary of the Lake Parish and School recently restructured their educational and faith formation goals, bringing all the elements together under one umbrella to strengthen their community.
Called a “parish faith formation,” the approach combines the Catholic school and religious education curriculum with diocesan standards, while integrating the adult faith formation program to better blend with what parish children are learning. The new structure is the brainchild of pastor Father Arthur Smith, while it is administered by Kristine Hider, director of Faith Formation and school principal.
“What’s happening is that we have changed our style of leadership from having an independent principal of the school and an independent DRE to a person who’s responsible for the entire faith formation of the community, and that is Kris,” Father Smith said. “We’re trying to take the best elements of Lifelong Faith Formation and Generations of Faith and incorporate them into experiences for the adults that will match what the kids are going through in their day-to-day experiences. We’re tightening the relationship between parents, families, children and the school.”
As an example, the school may host a social justice night, which explains what the issue is to children, as well as offer insights and more detail discussions for the adults.
“In other words, the adults are being invited in to see what the kids are learning, but at the same time, they’re learning more age-appropriate learning experiences,” Father Smith said. “The kids will have a session, the adults will have a session, and from time to time, they will come together.”
Hider called the new formation structure a large transition.
“This really was Father’s vision to do this, and I’m glad he brought me along, but it’s a lot of work,” she said. “Between the school and parish formation, it’s dividing your time trying to get everything done. Our teachers have jumped right on board (and) our catechists are wonderful.”
Even the adult formation classes have activities for children to do, “so the whole family can be here together,” Hider said.
“We’re trying to package it so it has the best of all the elements, and then give it to the adults and the kids,” Father Smith said.
Father Smith is even teaching a class in the parish school, based on his lifelong fondness for music. While other parish priests may teach religion, administrators believe Father Smith teaching a music class is a unique situation. He studied music during his childhood and while attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, but for the most part, he is self-taught without much professional experience.
“We take music and try to engage them in cultural development,” he said. “For example, we want to teach American folklore, so we teach them songs that were developed during the Revolutionary War, and we’re also trying to teach them jazz and classical music. We’re taking them from their elementary experience into a larger world.”
“Knowing his demanding schedule and how often he may need to be gone, he has a co-teacher,” Hider said.
Thus far, the program has received overwhelming positive support and reaction from the parish community. When asked why parish school children and religious education students weren’t being taught with the same methodology before, Father Smith said, “It’s a great question, because what’s happening in all these parishes in the diocese – you have the strand that is parochial school, you have the strand that is religious education, and the two hardly come together.”
“We don’t know why it hasn’t been done before, but it’s working very well,” Hider said.