The Catechumenate

When I first received the e-mail from VTS informing me that they were offering a “class” specifically for visitors to sit in on, I got very excited. Then I saw the title. Then I went on Wikipedia, because I did not for the life of me know what the Catechumenate was (or for that matter how to pronounce it)! Maybe that makes me a poor excuse for a Christian, I like to think it makes me no more educated about the technical terms that most. According to the syllabus we received “understood well, the catechumenate prepares people for baptism and baptismal living while providing an opportunity for the renewal of congregational mission.” To me this means that every Episcopalian should at some point in their Christian Formation Education learn about the catechumenate. Seeing as I know nothing, the “class” I had was a real eye-opener.

First we took a quiz designed to show us the roles that clubs and communities play in our lives. It consisted of basic yes and no questions revolving around life experiences. “Do you remember your baptism?” “Were you ever initiated into a sorority or fraternity?” “Did you have a secret handshake or club with friends as a child?” “Have you ever had to make a decision about circumcision?” “Were you raised in the Episcopal Church?” There were 15 questions asked and then we proceeded to discuss some of them based on how others answered. The catechumenate is a sort of community/club/secret handshake that only Christians know about. There are rights of initiation and it is a lifelong process.

As we discussed these various experiences we reflected on many of the timeless debates that occur within the Episcopal Church. I found these to be even more fascinating, because these debates have existed for centuries and we still have not come to find the “right answer.” Should we look at baptism and communion as going “through the table to the font?” or as coming “to the table through the font?” Is communion therefore exclusive or expulsive? The example given was that by only allowing baptized Christians to receive communion that makes it exclusive, versus when Jesus was baptized he was immediately expelled into the wilderness for 40 days of solitude.

I thought it was important to note that Catholic rights have transformed Episcopal thinking. Much of what we have decided to do was done because we disagreed with or were opposed to what the Catholics were doing at the time. The importance of baptism, the issue of re-baptism and confirmation, the Hierarchy of the Church, and Original Sin; just to name a few examples. We also discussed the Four Part Process of Catechesis, which really to me is only 3 parts but that’s neither here nor there. The first three parts consist of two basic principles: Entrance into the Catechumenal Process, and Teachings & Rights of Initiation. The fourth step is the Mystagogical Catechesis; which is basically referring to the fact that since the catechesis is a lifelong process the Mystagogical portion of that process is everything following initiation-what it means to be a member of the baptismal community.