Local woman facilitates courses

By Tanya Connor
 The Catholic Free Press

Adults in the Worcester Diocese can receive online faith formation on their own time through the University of Dayton – at a reduced cost. Among courses they can take are ones facilitated by a local Catholic, Eileen Charbonneau.
Ms. Charbonneau, whose full-time job is administrative assistant in the diocesan Judicial Vicar’s Office, is involved in religious education and faith formation on her own time. She’s taken – and facilitated – courses through the Virtual Learning Community for Faith Formation at Dayton, a Catholic university in Ohio. VLCFF is a non-profit organization coordinated by the university’s Institute for Pastoral Initiatives.
“Based upon over 20 years experience in multimedia and distance learning, the VLCFF team began exploring new alternative models … for adult faith formation in 1995,” says the website vlcff.udayton.edu. Initial courses were piloted, and in 1999 new courses were developed.
Now 89 dioceses in at least 15 countries partner with VLCFF, and there are more than 35,000 active students and 6,000-7,000 registrations for courses per year, according to Richard Drabik, VLCFF assistant director.
The adult students complete each week’s work (about five hours’ worth) on their own schedule, doing required reading online or from books, writing essays and taking quizzes, Ms. Charbonneau said. They must also share comments on the online “discussion board” for classmates and the facilitator to respond to on their own time. Facilitators use the already prepared course material, interact with students online and score their work.
Ms. Charbonneau said she is preparing to facilitate three more VLCFF courses, for which she’s paid a stipend, and take another one herself, for which she pays.
The course, or “e-retreat,” she’s about to take is “Advent: A Holy Waiting,” which runs from Nov. 28-Dec. 25.
“Because of COVID, I couldn’t go on retreat” at St. Joseph Abbey in Spencer the past two summers, she said. “I’ve really felt that loss tremendously.”
Unrelated to her work with Dayton, she is to facilitate an in-person Advent movie/discussion at her parish, St. Mary in Jefferson.
The Advent program at St. Mary’s, called “The Chosen,” involves participants watching a movie of Bible stories together and discussing questions about it that lead to reflection on their own lives. “The Chosen” is a popular, multi-season TV series about the life of Jesus.
Ms. Charbonneau is the first – and only – person in the Worcester Diocese that the diocesan Office of Religious Education has certified specifically to direct adult faith formation, said Elizabeth A. Marcil, office director. (She said parish DREs, directors of religious education, have been certified by the office to run programs which include both youth and adults.)
Ms. Charbonneau applied for certification and met the requirements; with her master’s degree in pastoral ministry from Anna Maria College in Paxton, letters of recommendation, and approval by the Office of Religious Education personnel board, Ms. Marcil said.
Ms. Charbonneau said that, while studying for her master’s, she realized that she wanted to focus on adult faith formation. She took VLCFF’s Adult Faith Formation Leadership program, and its social justice program.
In 2018 she facilitated her first VLCFF course – “Introduction to Liturgy.” Later she facilitated “Foundations for Liturgy” twice, and “Church History 1”  and “Church History 2”  each once, she said.
In 2022 she is scheduled to facilitate “Summary of Catholic Social Teaching,” starting April 25; “Foundations for Liturgy,” starting Sept. 5, and “Introduction to Scripture,” starting Oct. 24.
VLCFF is keeping up with the times, she said; among courses others facilitate are “Echoes of Racism: Whispers of Healing” and “Ministering in Times of Scandals and Divisions.”
Ms. Marcil said the religious education office is happy that Ms. Charbonneau is facilitating courses, because the Worcester Diocese has a partnership with VLCFF.
Partnering allows dioceses to share expertise, expand their course offerings and “be freed up from technical and administrative concerns while advancing the ministry of the local Church into cyberspace,” says the VLCFF website vlcff.udayton.edu/partnership/.
A diocese paying the $3,000 annual partnership fee enables its members to take four-to-six-week courses for $50 instead of $105 and three-week seminars for $40 instead of $80, the website says.
Ms. Marcil said any adult in the Worcester Diocese can take Dayton courses by signing up as a member of the diocese on the VLCFF website, https://vlcff.udayton.edu/profile/become_student.php.
She said VLCFF informs the diocese when these people finish their courses, which are especially helpful for catechists, AREs  (administrators of religious education) and Catholic school religion teachers.
“We highly encourage all catechists to pursue certification,” she said. She said the religious education office certifies as master catechists those who meet the requirements by taking either VLCFF courses or master catechist courses taught in the diocese.
Since the Worcester Diocese became a partner more than a decade ago, 238 members of the diocese have taken VLCFF courses, Ms. Marcil said. A few have taken 20 or more courses and many others have taken multiple courses.
Separately from dioceses’ certifications, VLCFF offers its students Continuing Education Units based on the International Association for Continuing Education and Training standards – one CEU for 10 hours of work, the VLCFF website says.
Students taking courses for undergraduate credit are given additional assignments and charged $200 per course, whether or not they are in a partnering diocese.