Registration and Hospitality

Welcome/Opening Prayer

KEYNOTE

Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, Ph.D.

Lunch

Papers, Workshops, and Discussions

1. CGS News: New Website Services
Karen Maxwell, Pat Sauerman, and Rachel Faulman
For the past year, the staff of the National Association of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd has been working closely with a website company in redesigning our association’s website. The new site will offer intuitive navigation tools for CGS information and updates, e-commerce for publication purchases and renewing memberships. It will also be the new home for the revised editions of all Materials Manuals. At this workshop, you will have the opportunity to receive an introduction to the various resources available on the website including a look at the new Level I Materials Manual.

2. Stretch Yourself
Seraphima Butler
Come enjoy gentle stretch and strengthening movements designed to help your relax. Will include a warm-up walk for the first 10 minutes and a period of silence near the end. Geared for beginning to intermediate fitness levels, and modifications for each level will be shown.

3. Music Maker Lap Harp Workshop
Beverly Sanders
The Music Maker workshop will help you and your children to use the instrument in an atrium setting. This will be a hands-on learning experience with instruments. The topics covered will be tuning the music maker, making your own music sheets, teaching children how to play, and use in the atrium. Workshop will be limited to 15 people. Sign up sheets will be posted at the registration table.

4. Beauty, Simplicity, Order
Davette Himes
How to create and organize an atrium on a limited budget. Ideas to tap the resources of your community and congregation and reuse, repurpose, and recycle to furnish your atrium.

Break

Papers, Workshops, and Discussions

1. Wool Workshop
Denise Frame Harlon
Middle Eastern nomadic cultures valued the particular characteristics of wool for use in garments and rugs-- that's why those shepherds were caring for those sheep! In this workshop you can learn how to spin yarn from wool, and how to teach Atrium III children to spin yarn from wool. We will look at simple weaving, felting and fiber-arts projects. We will discuss connections between wool, culture, biblical texts, and what it means to weave our gifts. We will also look at clips from the Iranian film Gabbeh, which follows a tribe from sheep-shearing and fiber-dying through rug-weaving and marriage customs. Workshop will be limited to 15 people. Signup sheets will be posted at the conference site.
Please consider a materials donation of $5.

2. Adolescent Spirituality through the lens of CGS
Carol Hanlon
How can our CGS tradition help us to understand and develop programs for the adolescent (age 13 and older)?
Please join us as we review current research regarding adolescents to determine how this age hears and interprets the Gospel. Using this information, we will then consider how to best address CGS themes with the adolescent population.
This workshop is open to anyone interested in the adolescent population. Ample time will be offered for discussion and questions as we explore these topics together. A full bibliography for future reading will be provided.

3.Book Binding for the Elementary Atrium
Melinda Melone
Bookbinding can be a great way to engage children in Great Works. Come see a variety of techniques for bookbinding and discuss ways to incorporate it into your atrium. We will practice one technique of sewn bindings, and walk through the steps of completely making a hardcover book (cloth bound, sewn pages), but will not have time for participants to create a whole book from scratch. You will walk away with a lot of handouts and ideas, and one set of sewn pages with directions to complete your book at home.
Workshop will be limited to 12 people. Sign up sheets will be posted at the conference.

4. Cross Denominational Formation
Diane Barry
Leading formation courses for multi-denominational groups of participants can be difficult. Diane addresses how it's possible to meet the needs of your participants and soothe tensions when working with denominations other than your own. Over her 10 years of training in CGS, Diane has worked with Presbyterians, Baptist, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics and Methodist, as well as non-denominational groups. Come discuss and explore with her the joys and agonies of this kind of formation.

1. Beyond Children's Chapel: Ideas for More Inclusive Liturgies
Molly Reingruber
“Liturgy” originally meant “the work of the people”; how can we include children so they can participate more fully in our communities of worship? In this forum we will review what we know about children and liturgy, and explore how to incorporate changes while respecting tradition. Participants may share ideas about inclusive/inter-generational/family-friendly worship from their own churches. (Participants are welcome to bring hands-on materials and resources.)

2. How to Mind Map Album Pages: A Visual and Spatial Approach to Aid Presentation Organization and Recall
Jodi-Beth McCain
Would a new way to organize your album pages for presentations be helpful to you? Jodi-beth will share how an alternative note taking approach, called the Memory Minder system, organizes ideas spatially and aids visual recall. She will share how Memory Minders has been helpful to her in her work in the atrium, as well as share handouts that will serve as useful tools in creating your own notes. Together we'll prepare the presentation portion of an album page using this approach. Come try it out!

3. Introducing CGS to Grandma or Grandpa
Wendie Roberts
Please come and explore with us what is needed to prepare older adults who would like to do some CGS presentations with their visiting grandchildren. How much is too much?? Join in a lively discussion of how this idea could possibly be done. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

4. A discussion of the Roman Missal - Third Edition
Pat Sauerman
The Third Edition of the Roman Missal will begin to be used in the Roman Catholic liturgy the First Sunday of Advent 2011. This discussion will explore what's coming and why, implications for the atrium, and the new links between Scripture and Liturgy in this edition.

7:30

Introduction of the New Director of the National Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Mary Mirrione

Evening Prayer and Blessings for the New Director

Informal time to meet, mingle, and chat with Mary Mirrione and each other.

1. Introducing the Adolescent--Moving from CGS to J2A
Wendie Roberts
We will be exploring the characteristics, truths, gifts and needs of the adolescent and discussing some simple tools and resources for working with adolescents, especially those adolescents who have been doing CGS. There will be some specific references for working with the J2A (Journey to Adulthood) program.

2. Nurturing Your Children's Faith at Home: Parent Education and Activities to Support CGS
Jan Kelly and Karen Waters
This presentation explores simple ways to help families to nurture their faith at home in support of the CGS presentations. We'll discuss activities that encompass all three levels and include reading from the Bible, singing Songs, crafting, honoring the various liturgical seasons, reciting special Prayers, creating special rituals, and mealtime conversation starters. Specific projects could include: rosary making, family crèches for Advent and much more!

3. Nichiren Buddhism - A Meditative Experience
Martha Lange and Catherine Maresca
The first steps in the development of the Children's Interfaith Center, using the model of Still Waters, Martha and Catherine have developed a set of eleven materials to introduce, experience and reflect on some of the essential concepts of Nichiren Buddhism, practiced widely in Japan and the United States. We will have an hour to work with the materials, and 30 minutes to process the experience together.

1. Yoga--Glorify God in Your Body (I Cor 6:20)
Donna Faulkner
Donna, a catechist and registered yoga instructor, will lead a workshop using yoga poses, asanas, and breathe work, pranayama, as a tool for centering and preparation for meditation on scripture. We will share movement and scripture. We wll also use a vinyasa, a flow of poses, as prayer. Donna will share her experiences in using yoga poses with children. She uses yoga as a centering tool for assisting the childrens' transition from a busy day to their time in the atrium. She also uses yoga poses to help children find and enjoy silence. We will glorify God together through movement! Yoga experience is not necessary and neither are yoga mats. Weather permitting we will hold the workshop outside

2. Exploring the Progression of the Baptism Materials in Level I, II and III
Pat Sauerman
During this workshop, participants will investigate the content of the Level I, II and III Baptism materials AND closely examine how these materials progress from Level I to Level II to Level III in the atria.
The presentation will include a powerpoint with materials descriptions, photos of the Rome and some USA atrias, and samples of work of the child.

3. Can the Sheep Hear the Shepherd?: Enhancing Hearing and Listening in the Atrium
Susan Piescik
Given the incidence of slight to mild hearing loss in the US, every atrium mostly likely includes at least one child with hearing loss. Participants will explore how even slight to mild hearing loss can impact a child's experience of the atrium, where the theme of hearing/listening occur in CGS presentations, and what role hearing/listening play in CGS methodology. Practical management tidbits will benefit the listening experience of all children in the atrium.

4. The Plan of God - Working on a version for all the children of the world
Davette Himes
Does your Plan of God speak to all the children of your atrium? Level III catechists are invited to help with and discuss an expansion and update of the material to better serve children around the world. Includes suggestions for up-to-date resources and ideas to research, understand, and bring to life the inventions, cultures, and religions represented on the timeline.

5. Meet the New Director of the National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Mary Mirrione
"Getting to know you…come let’s speak of the children, our service to them and our association. As the new director of the National Association, I invite you to come and tell me of your work, your region, your hopes and concerns for the future. I stand ready to listen. Walk with me as we take this new step in our joyful journey with the Good Shepherd and the child.

1. Reflections on the 23rd Psalm
Lynn Robinson
Using many resources that focus on the 23rd Psalm, participants will be led through a verse by verse reflection with lots of helpful and thought-provoking imagery of shepherds, sheep, pasturing, etc. The reflections are intended provide valuable insights for those involved in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

2. Parenting: A Sacred Journey
Karen Maxwell and Kathy Holman
With the birth of a child begins the lifelong journey of parenting. Although our focus may be on the nurture of our children as they grow, as parents we find that within us our spirits are touched in profound ways. How do we address the spirituality of parenting? Patience Leiden Robbins explored this question personally and then with other parents in small groups over the years primarily through workshops offered through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation in Bethesda, Maryland. She developed a booklet of meditations for working with small groups that lifts up certain themes that most resonated with the parents with whom she shared this experience. Parenting: A Sacred Path is the title of her meditation series and the title of our workshop. Kathy Holman, who is a graduate of Shalem Institute in Spiritual Direction as well as a Deacon for the Diocese of Atlanta and Karen Maxwell will co-lead a workshop where you can experience some of the meditations offered in this series and hear about how these small group meditations can appeal to all parents of all ages of children but may be especially suited for parents with children in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

3. Creating Advent Window Stars
Denise Frame Harlan
The Stars are crafted from double-sided waxed tissue paper. Various layers of color provide levels of opacity, and the folds form intricate patterns.
Catechists may craft very simple window stars with children in Level 1, and more intricate stars with older children. The results are elegant and the process is easier than it appears. It can be used as a way to aid prayer, and nurture concentration. Workshop will be limited to 15 people. Signup sheets will be posted at the conference site.
Please consider a materials donation of $5.

4. An Orthodox Christian Encounter with the Catechesis
Seraphima Sierra Butler
Formation Leader Seraphima Sierra Butler explores the theological and experiential rationale for adaptations of the CGS in the Orthodox Christian tradition, and attempts to inform and empower fellow catechists and Formation Leaders who may find Orthodox Christian participants within their courses. Will address some of the most common points of concern among Orthodox Christians in implementing CGS, and offer some suggestion for CGS outreach to the same. Slides of adapted materials will be shown for comparison with materials of Western Christian traditions, and time will be provided for an open dialogue at the end.