'Faith Alive' used as discussion spark

Paul Doyle believes that faith education doesn't end at Confirmation, so he started a four-week discussion series for adults of St. Madeleine Sophie Church, Guilderland, and St. Gabriel's Church, Rotterdam.

The series used the weekly "Faith Alive" page of The Evangelist (see page 13) to get participants talking about the role faith plays in their lives.

"Faith Alive" covers theological, religious and biblical issues. It can also be found at www.evangelist.org

Current issues

"What stuck in my mind is that Faith Alive frequently deals with contemporary issues that strike home in a lot of ways," Mr. Doyle explained. "It's the type of thing that people can react to and have opinions about. We can look at the current state of our Church as it relates to familiarity with the Bible, and, hopefully, it will engender discussion."

Mr. Doyle, a Eucharistic minister, lector and pre-Baptism educator at St. Madeleine's, got the idea for the class from a Spring Enrichment class presented last June by The Evangelist's staff. They spoke about ways to use the newspaper for adult education.

"The idea is to provide reminders to people that faith formation doesn't stop when you leave school," he said. "I was confirmed way back. For a long time, I put aside the whole idea of religious education. But everybody in today's society is looking for ways to improve their understanding, and our spiritual side would benefit from the same kind of attention."

Radio voice

Mr. Doyle volunteers for WMHT's RISE program, which is a reading service for the blind and print-disabled. His is the voice that reads The Evangelist and the Altamont Enterprise, as well as books and other publications.

"Doing that, I naturally become more immersed in the weekly content," he said. "I've discovered that there is a lot of great information in The Evangelist. It was like a light bulb went off: That it would be a good match" for a discussion series.

Range of topics

Mr. Doyle has been pleased with the variety of topics that have arisen within the small group.

"Last week, we talked a lot about the role of women in the Church -- the current role of women and what we might envision as being the future for people who are our granddaughters' ages," he said.

The sessions are "an investment in time. We all have to make choices and decisions about how we're going to spend our time.

"There are so many things going on in today's world, especially for people and busy families, but it's important to look at the commitment we make in growing our spiritual sides."

(Paul Doyle regularly attends such diocesan events as Spring Enrichment and this October's Parish Convening. At the latter, he attended a session on planning for funerals, which he found "very practical and useful to bring back to the parish.")

(11/24/05) [[In-content Ad]]