New Project Launched to Support Faith in Families
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...The National Community of Catechetical Leaders (NCCL) has launched a Lilly Endowment grant-funded project titled Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation involving 9 parishes in the Diocese of Saint Petersburg in a 3-year initiative.
The National Community of Catechetical Leaders (NCCL) has launched a Lilly Endowment grant-funded project titled Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation involving 9 parishes in the Diocese of Saint Petersburg in a 3-year initiative.
Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation works to guide parish leaders in understanding how faith is or is not being transmitted in families so that new approaches and strategies can be designed to address family research, current thinking on faith transmission, and feedback from their own parish families. Three workshops have been scheduled as part of this initiative during this first year, to guide each parish team in designing their own plans for forming the faith of families from birth to high school graduation.
The initial workshop took place on Saturday, February 1, 2025, at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church in Spring Hill. Two additional workshops will occur this year:
Saturday, May 31, 2025: St. Matthew Catholic Church, Largo
Saturday, September 13, 2025: Light of Christ Catholic Church, Clearwater
NCCL provides specific goals for this project:
- Encourage parents/caregivers to grow in the faith as adults
- Equipping parents/caregivers to live Christian practices both at home and in the world
- Engaging parents/caregivers in learning how to form their children in the faith
- Involving the entire family in experiences and programs at the parish that form their faith
- Connecting families to intergenerational faith-forming experiences
The family is the most significant influence shaping the religious and spiritual lives of children and adolescents. NCCL emphasizes the importance of placing parents/caregivers and the family at the center of faith formation, as well as strengthening the parish community to accompany parents and the family in forming faith. Based on the faith formation plans designed by parishes in the project, NCCL will curate and/or design resources, programs, and activities to assist parish leaders in implementing their plan with parents, with families at home, and with families at church.
This project is launching in 21 dioceses across the United States, the Archdiocese of the Military Services in the U.S. and Europe. This makes up 26 cohorts of parishes, four of which are in Spanish.
To learn more about Parents and Families at the Center of Faith Formation, visit www.ncclcatholicfamilies.org.
