Generation Next

St. Anthony of Padua Parish, Dudley

Now that fall and the school year are in full swing, we look back to the warmer, more leisurely days of summer vacation, when students in the religious education program at St. Anthony Parish in Dudley were hard at work – and play.

Each July St. Anthony Parish holds its summer religious education program. There are two sessions which run for two weeks each from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 pm. Students choose which session to attend. This year a total of 130 students in grades one through seven attended one or the other of the sessions.
Adults from the parish volunteer their time and talent as teachers, liturgy leaders, recess monitors, and snack helpers. There are also teens who volunteer to assist the teachers and help with recess.
The curriculum includes religious education, which this year centered on Scripture, and religious music, which is usually played at Mass and led by music directors Carol Rossetti and Caleigh Banks.
The program begins each day with Mass, at which the children read the Scriptures, present the gifts and sing in the choir. As part of their classroom studies, they perform skits relating to the year’s theme, after watching skits put on by the teenaged helpers. They also make banners which are used in a procession at the Mass on the last day of classes, to which family and friends are invited.
It is not all work, as they have break time for snacks and can go out and enjoy some fun and games.
A day is set aside for a field trip each year, which the children find very interesting.  Last year they visited the Greek Orthodox Church, SS. Constantine and Helen, in Webster, and this year went by bus to Worcester to visit Temple Emanuel.
Linda Brink, religious education coordinator, and Father Paul F. Campbell, pastor, work diligently in putting together this program, which helps to bring religious education to the children and to promote camaraderie among them.