ForMission:
A PROGRAM FOR FORMATION DIRECTORS
Photo Album of February 2007 Session
Why
Learning at Home
Mentors/Peer Supervision
Intensive Sessions
Dates/Locations/Costs
Designers of the Program
How to Apply
In May 2000 the Religious Formation Conference, with the cooperation of Chicago's Catholic Theological Union and the Washington Theological Union, launched a new program for directors of incorporation and formation. This year it celebrates its fifth anniversary!
ForMission is for men and women who have been called by their
institutes to serve in the ministry of welcoming and accompanying new members. It is for those who currently direct, or are preparing to direct new members at any stage of initial formation.
The primary aim of this program is to foster the personal transformation of the directors, and offer them help in developing the vision and skills necessary for their ministry, along with the opportunity to explore themes that are at the heart of incorporation into religious life today. Participants will enter a two-year cycle which combines learning at home with two intensive residential sessions each year.
page
top ^
ForMission has arisen from the belief that the task of welcoming and accompanying new members of religious life today calls for special training and skill. This is true even when candidates may be few in number and come to religious life well formed in many ways by a wealth of experience in life and ministry. Formation is not what it was; the program is ideal for retraining and updating.
Although there are already some very competent programs in existence for just this purpose, the Conference has received repeated requests from directors for assistance in a format accessible to those who prefer not to spend an extended period in a full-time residential program.
The Religious Formation Conference recently examined this need further by conducting a survey among its members. The findings indicated that there was strong interest in a new kind of program, one that would permit directors to study "on-the job". In the summer of 1999, Janet Mock CSJ, Executive Director of the RFC, gathered a group to explore the possibility of developing a model along the lines of distance learning programs. This diverse group has become the curriculum committee for designing ForMission. Their combined gifts and backgrounds-in formation, theological and pastoral education, distance learning, and leadership of religious life at the national and international levels-bring a great richness to the program.
page
top ^
While carrying out their ministry at home, participants will do assigned readings and engage in discussion of these with a study group formed from members of their own community. It is hoped that the program can thereby have the wider effect of strengthening community support for the incorporation process. Short reflection papers will also be required of the participants.
Mentoring is another important component of ForMission. Each participant will have a mentor with whom he or she meets/contacts regularly; the Religious Formation Conference will provide a training program for all the mentors. Participants will also be part of a peer supervision group in their locales, in accord with guidelines provided by the Conference.
page
top ^
In the week-long intensive sessions participants will approach formation for mission by looking at the world today through the lenses of
- REFLECTIONS ON THE REIGN OF GOD
- AN ECONOMY OF LIVING: WHAT DOES
THE VOW OF POVERTY MEAN TODAY
- RIGHT RELATIONSHIPS: WHAT DOES THE
VOW OF CELIBACY MEAN TODAY
- FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY: WHAT
DOES THE VOW OF OBEDIENCE MEAN TODAY?
They will study a different one of these themes during each of the four week-long sessions and explore the themes in relationship to the Catholic Church and its traditions and religious life. As they do so, they will also be examining the implications of all of these topics for the training of new members today. Faculty from each of the Unions along with other resource persons will share in the teaching,.
In the first intensive session of the cycle, the input on our cultural context deals with such questions as:
- what is culture?
- what are the foundational shifts occurring in contemporary culture?
- what does this have to say to the experience of directors and the process of incorporation into religious life today?
In relation to these questions, participants and presenters also explore how culture has affected our understandings of God, the human person, spirituality, religious life and its traditions.
Later sessions will address other issues related to discipleship, mission, and the vows today and ask, for example:
- what does the vow of poverty mean for us now?
- what are the moral issues at stake which help us re-think what poverty is all about at this stage in the 21st Century?
- what Christology and pneumatology speak to our commitment to live simply?
- where is the Spirit leading us with respect to these issues?
In the intensive sessions, a variety of methods appropriate for adult learners will be used to draw on the expertise of participants, faculty and facilitators. These will include 'theological reflection' and other reflective processes, faculty presentations, case studies, and praxis. The emphasis in all of these methods is on empowering the directors for their task. Prayer, community, and leisure are integral to the sessions.
page
top ^
Those interested in ForMission can begin the cycle with any intensive session. Those beginning the program at any session will need to arrive one day early for orientation. The dates and locations for upcoming sessions are:
- June 22-30 2008 - Catholic Theological Union, Chicago IL - Session A: Reflections on the Reign of God
- January 9-17, 2009 - Holy Trinity Spiritual Center, Baltimore MD - Session B: An Economy of Living
- June 10-18, 2009 - Catholic Theological Union, Chicago IL - Session C: Right Relationships
- January 3-11, 2010 - Oblate Renewal Center, San Antonio TX - Session D: Freedom and Responsibility
Housing during these sessions will be at the schools or in a nearby facility.
You may open a pdf copy of the ForMission brochure by clicking here. However, this website has more extensive information not found in the brochure and and application form, found here.
Costs:
Effective December 2005: $9500 (includes tuition, room and board for the total program) paid in four installments. Non-members of RFC pay an additional $1600. There is a non-refundable deposit of $500, applicable to tuition. Checks (in US$ and drawn on a US Bank) should be made payable to the Religious Formation Conference and sent with to the name and address below.
Other Requirements:
- Deadlines for written applications are November 1 for the winter session and April 1 for the spring session. Applications will be processed as they are received.
- Your application must be accompanied by a letter of support from a member of your leadership team.
- Please include a recent photo of yourself with your application
Those interested in applying for admission to ForMission should
print an application found here
and send it to:
Patricia Flynn SSND
Program Director, FORMISSION
Religious Formation Conference
8820 Cameron Street
Silver Spring, MD 20910-4152
E-Mail: click here
Phone: 301 588 4938 (RFC Office)
Fax: 301 585 7649 (RFC Office)
or click here for email.
page
top ^
The members of the curriculum committee are:
Margaret Brennan IHM (Professor Emerita, Regis College, Toronto School of Theology),
Mary Ann Buckley SHCJ, (Former Program Director)
Frank Danella OSFS
Barbara Doherty SP (Former Director, The Institute of Religious Formation at CTU)
Charles Gravenstine, Former Director of Pastoral Ministry, Catholic
University of America
Barbara Kraemer OSF (Former Director, Center for the Study of Religious Life at CTU)
Don Loskot SDS (Former RFC Board Member)
+
Shaun McCarty ST
Daniel McLellan OFM, (Former President, WTU)
Janet Mock CSJ, (Former Executive Director, RFC)
Gary Riebe-Estrella SVD (Vice-President and Academic Dean of CTU)
James Scullion OFM, (Former Vice-President for Academic Affairs and
Academic Dean, WTU)
Fintan Sheeran SSCC (Advisor)
Mary Daniel Turner SNDdeN, (Facilitator and Consultant)
Facilitation
Team:
Patricia Flynn SSND,
Program
Director
Rudy Vela SM,
Asst. Prof. of Theology, St. Mary's University
Charles Gravenstine,
Former Director of Pastoral Ministry, Catholic
University of America
Violet Grennan mfic,
Executive Director of the Religious Formation
Conference
Mary Ann Mulzet SSJ,
Liturgist,
Joseph Nangle OFM,
Franciscan Mission Service
Mary Daniel Turner SNDdeN,
Facilitator and Consultant
Fintan Sheeran SSCC, Facilitator
|
