The following notes, based on the General Directory for Catechetics (GDC), can provide the outline for a staff study session aimed at deepening people's appreciation of the relationship between religious education in schools and the ministry of the Word.

OPENING PRAYER

Invite someone to read aloud the verse from John's gospel:-

"I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full."

Allow a few moments of silence for reflection.

SHARING EXPERIENCES. Think about a variety of learning experiences in your life. 

• Who supported or encouraged or challenged you?

• How did a situation become a time of learning?

• In what ways did 'the gospel message' contribute to this learning?

• How has the religious education of your schooldays made a difference to you?

• What do you remember most clearly?

• Who do you remember most clearly?

• In what ways has your religious education led to 'fullness of life'?

• What opportunities to teach others the ways of Catholic faith have come your way?

• What form did your teaching take?

• What helped you? How did you feel?

• In what ways did this affect or develop your own faith?

Read and reflect on GDC (18 and 73-75)

Education of the whole person - for life and liberty.
The foundation for religious education in Catholic schools is the Church's respect for the human person: "What interests the Church is above all the integral development of the human person and of all peoples. ... The right to life, work, education, the foundation of a family, participation in public life, and to religious liberty, are, today, demanded more than ever."

Rooted in the Reality of Learning
Religious Education in school prepares, equips and engages students in the dialogue between culture and the Gospel. This 'dialogue' is twofold:-

• within "at that level at which every subject discipline forms the personality of students";
• cultural, so that the dynamic seed of the gospel is sown in the "cultural universal" being shaped and defined for students by the knowledge and values of their curriculum learning in other scholastic disciplines.

"It is necessary, therefore, that religious education in schools appear as a scholastic discipline with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines. It must present the Christian message and the Christian event with the same seriousness and the same depth with which other disciplines present their knowledge. It should not be an accessory alongside of these disciplines, but rather it should engage in a necessary inter-disciplinary dialogue." "It underpins, activates, develops and completes the educational activity of the school".

Rooted in the Reality of Life
The GDC recognises the diversity of contexts in which religious education is offered. It asserts the Church's right to teach the truth of Jesus Christ and his saving mission and parental choice of a Catholic education. It recognises the distinctiveness of Catholic schools where "religious education is part of and completed by other forms of the ministry of the word (catechesis, homilies, liturgical celebration, etc.). It is indispensable to their pedagogical function and the basis for their existence."

The GDC also recognises situations in which civil authorities or other circumstances will mean the teaching of religion "will have a more ecumenical character and a more inter-religious awareness" or "will have an extensively cultural character and teach a knowledge of religions including the Catholic religion".

Religious education in schools must be alert and sensitive to the diversity of students and their needs:

• "In the case of students who are believers, religious education assists them to understand better the Christian message, by relating it to the great existential concerns common to all religions and to every human being, to the various visions of life particularly evident in culture and to those major moral questions which confront humanity today."

Those students who are searching, or who have religious doubts, can also find in religious education the possibility of discovering what exactly faith in Jesus Christ is, what response the Church makes to their questions, and gives them the opportunity to examine their own choice more deeply.

In the case of students who are non-believers, religious education assumes the character of a missionary proclamation of the Gospel and is ordered to a decision of faith, which catechesis, in its turn, will nurture and mature.

FOR DISCUSSION

Making the Gospel present

• List some of the life situations young people face today - cultural, social, religious. Include positive and negative ones. How do you think the Gospel might speak to these situations? What opportunities do you have to share this with young people: (a) as a teacher; (b) as a parent; (c) in some other role?

 Current Practice

• For schools: What are your strategies for helping pupils to understand and appreciate the gospel message? For parents, governors, clergy: In what ways might a home, school, parish partnership contribute to this task?

A Two-fold Dialogue and an Academic Discipline

• For schools: How do your Mission Statement and RE policy reflect the GDC? For parents, governors, clergy: What opportunities do you have to know about and become familiar with the school's religious education policy?

A Variety of Needs

• Look at the GDC's description of different types of students (75).
• What different situations and needs are identified? From your experience of schools, pupils and families today is there anything you would add? What responsibilities does this reality place upon: teachers, schools, governors, parish clergy, the Church in England and Wales?

ACT ON THE MESSAGE

• If you are a teacher in school, how does the GDC's vision of religious education affirm or challenge your classroom practice? What will you develop? What will you change?
• If you are a parent, what do you need to do to take a more active or informed role in the religious education of your family?
• If you are a teacher or a parent, think about the ways in which you know, celebrate, live and pray the gospel message.
• What one step might you take to make the most of your opportunities for making the gospel present in your life, work and relationships.

PRAYER:- Invite someone to read aloud these verses from Philippians (4: 8-9)

• "Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise; things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable. Put into practice what you have learnt and received from me, both from my words and from my actions."

Reflect for a few moments on the vocation to teach.

Pray for all those involved in religious education.

Pray for openness in your own search for truth and for God.

End your prayer with the sign of the cross as a profession of faith.