Welcome to September and the start to a new year in faith formation at St. John Neumann parish!
We hope this year will be a time of grace and growing in faith, knowledge, and wisdom. As we embark on this new year in our faith journey, we have scheduled our 2020-2021 Faith Formation Kickoff meeting for September, 20th in Weber Hall, immediately following the 10:30 am Mass. It is vitally important that someone from each family (or someone to represent your family) is present, as we have so much to go over!
At this meeting, we will:
- Have each family complete a registration/re-registration form
- Collect a $35 registration fee for each registered student
- Hand out the first packet of Pflaum Gospel Weeklies and discuss how to go online (if your family would like to use the online resources)
- Pass out the calendar
- Discuss plans for building a vibrant online community using BAND (catechists, parents, and students)
- Discuss what needs to happen so that we can begin in-person classes at some point hopefully this year - there are A LOT of requirements the state is mandating
- Offer suggestions for families who may feel overwhelmed at the thought of home-based formation
- Answer any questions
There are a few things you can do ahead of time to help things go faster and run smoother on September 20th:
- Complete your Re-registration form and bring it to us already filled out, with your registration fee.
- Create an account in BAND (the app for small groups) and install the app on your devices:
- Navigate to www.band.us
- Click on Sign Up to create your account. Follow the prompts to register.
- Once your account is created and you are logged in, type in "SJN Faith Formation" in the BAND search bar to bring up our BAND. You should see a box with a picture of St. John Neumann and the words SJN Faith Formation.
- Click on the SJN Faith Formation Band.
- On the left side, click on "Join this Band."
- Highlight your name until a green checkmark is next to your name
- Click "join this band"
- Click OK
- Think about how your children will best learn and engage with the curriculum, Pflaum Gospel Weeklies (PGW), this year. You will have three choices for each child and you will be asked to choose ONE:
- PAPER: Every 8 weeks PGW packets will be available for pick up on the back porch of the parish office. When you pick up your new packets, you will need to drop off your child’s completed quiz packets (to demonstrate that they completed their lessons).
- ONLINE: All reading material and quizzes are done online and there is nothing to pick up or drop off.
- HYBRID: Every 8 weeks PGW packets will be available for pick up on the back porch of the parish office. Students will ALSO be able to read/review all materials online. Quizzes will be completed online with nothing to turn in.
I am sure that many of you may be wondering when we can resume in-person classes. And, I would like to discuss this at our meeting. It is our hope that we can resume classes as soon as we can safely do so. We will need to make sure that we can meet all of the requirements the county and state have imposed. To help think through some of these issues, the Diocese has given us the following guidelines. Please read through these to better understand the issues we are facing and to help facilitate a fruitful conversation:
As we embark on this new adventure, we pray:
Lord, we walk into this year completely dependent upon You. When we begin to lean on our own understanding, remind us that Your ways far surpass ours. Thank you in advance for showing us the right paths and leading us in the way we should go. We don’t know what this year has in store, but You do. We trust in Your ability to care for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
In Christ,
Melissa Weisenburg & Michele Schubert