TRE / Religious Education

TRE ( Total parish Religious Experience)/ religious education started the 2007-08 year at our parish today. Since many churches out there may still be doing CCD, I will explain that this is a newer concept to religious education. I think our parish has been doing it for about four or five years ( time flies when you are having fun ) now and a couple other parishes in our area started a few years before us. This is new and different in that the whole family attends the one session each month. It starts out with song and prayer then the children go to their classes which are much like the old CCD. Adults stay in the church and discuss the same topic that the kids are all talking about only on an adult level. Then at the conclusion the children come back , share what they have worked on, we sing and pray more and then are dismissed. This years theme is Follow the yellow brick road obviously from the wizard of Oz. In an attempt to start off with excitement we were visited by The cowardly lion who got his courage, The scarecrow who got his brain, and the tin man who got his heart. All in all it was an interesting day. One thing that the adults talked about are things that we are concerned about with our youth as well as things that we are proud of about our youth. We talked about different groups in which our kids are involved which are positive. Many people mentioned that their children had groups at school where they supported each other . Groups Where they could pray or discuss the bible.( yes in public schools) These all sounded well and good to me but something came to mind .Most of these children attend my Alma Matter which is in a very Christian area, most of which are Catholics. My children as well as a few others do not attend this school as we live in the surrounding areas and have chosen this parish not because it is the closest but because of various other reasons. As different parents spoke I couldn't help but think of something like this floating( or should I say not floating ) in my children's school district which is Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Jewish , Islam,American Indian, Jehovah witness as well as a few other religions. I kind of got lost in thought as to what could be done here. So we all have different beliefs, but I happen to know many of these people representing these different beliefs and most are wonderful people. Why is it that a primarily Catholic and Protestant school gets so much praise for having prayer groups when a bigger more diverse school has just as many great things going on but isn't acknowledged ? I thought about speaking what I was thinking but chose to keep my thoughts private for the time being. Maybe down the road I will feel comfortable speaking about my views on this issue. For now I will just say that I think that it would be a much better world if everyone in it would just see everyone else as the brothers and sisters that they are, regardless of what or who they believe in. Everything doesn't have to be Catholic or protestant or any other religion to be right. We are all God's people. There is no reason for anyone to worry about convincing anyone else to believe what they do. Instead how about we all get along and do some great things . After all isn't that what it is all about ?