Beyond the Threshold

On a cold Saturday in January, eighty catechists from across the Diocese gathered to reflect and learn. The day was focussed on ‘exploring the key principles that we need to employ before we embark on any specific programme of catechesis’. It began with a keynote speech from David Wells and included four workshops from other contributors.

An international speaker and author, David gave a presentation that was delivered with scattered humorous personal anecdotes used to emphasise important points and added fun to the morning. He addressed a range of sentiments that we all experience including the virtues of faith, hope and love, focusing on our need to be present and willing to be available. To listen with our heart, to have a level of discernment to determine what God is saying to us as individuals.

David later led the initial workshop called ‘What makes a good Story?’ the pedagogy of Christ. He explained that for people to understand and remember important issues the best way is to tell a story – it is called neural coupling – our brains have plasticity and release hormones in anticipation/expectation. Jesus was a genius at story telling (his parables) and David explained that there were two basic types; a story that is personal (conversion) or one that is societal (tradition) both helping us understand our beliefs but in different ways.