The Partners in a Shared Task proposal grew from a national conference on Home School Parish partnerships organised by the Passing on the Faith Working Group in December 2009. 

Prompted by the feedback from participants and by the conference presentations the Working Group realised that a critical piece in the national programme of religious education and catechesis had not been addressed. The particular roles of home, school and parish in passing on faith in God had not been clarified.  Until they were, the Working Group would be unable to complete the task set for them by the Bishops in April 2005.  

“As parents, teachers, priests, parish catechists or youth workers ... Our roles in the settings of home, parish, school and other centres are complementary yet distinct. We are partners in a shared task. We help the young to grow and develop but we do so in different ways. We need to be clear about our different roles if we are to perform them with confidence. At times we have false expectations of what we can do and we make unrealistic demands of others.” 

Gallagher, J., 1986. Guidelines. Living and Sharing Our Faith: A National Project of Catechesis and Religious Education. London: Collins. p25.

A proposal for a series of conversations involving parents, teachers, catechists and priests (both together and separately) was drafted and three dioceses agreed to trial the process.  

On July 5^th 2010 a meeting of the home-school-parish leadership teams from each of the pilot dioceses took place at Liverpool Archdiocese Conference Centre, to introduce the pilot process, consider how it might unfold within each diocese according to local priorities, and to identify the national support required in order for pilots to flourish and outcomes to be shared more widely.

Present: Des Seddon, Tony Ford, Veronica Murphy, Maureen O’Brien, Pat Cooney, John McLoughlin (Liverpool), Peggy Swinhoe, James Cornwell, Jane Cook, Caroline Dollard (Middlesbrough), Jillian Wilce, Elizabeth McMahon (Plymouth), Elizabeth Davies and Linda Pennington (Facilitator)

After introductions, welcome and prayer led by Caroline Dollard, Elizabeth Davies outlined the purpose of the planning meeting:

• To introduce the Partners in a Shared Task pilot
• To enable participating dioceses to share ideas, experiences and concerns
• To explore the practicalities of the pilot
• To clarify how the Working Group can best support the pilots

  Background to Passing on the Faith

The next session provided an opportunity for dioceses to share their working contexts for this pilot and what they wished to achieve through participating.

  Middlesbrough powerpoint (.ppt, 7Mb)

  Liverpool handout (.pdf, 200kb)

After this, participants met in focus groups (home, school, parish) to reflect on what passing on the faith meant to them personally. The working group had drafted animating stories to assist the conversation and the school and parish groups drew on these in their response.

  Two of the stories used (MS Word, 400kb)

  A draft handout envisaging the Partners in a Shared Task process (.pdf, 250kb)

After lunch the diocesan teams regrouped to think about how each of their pilots might work. After sharing ideas, the teams then identified their needs of the working group in order to complete the pilot process.

• Time to try something out (4-6 months)
• Working group to attend conversations as objective listeners
• Rt Rev John Hine to write a letter to participants for the beginning of a session (see below)
• A simple format for feeding back results of conversations/consultations (see below)
• Feedback from today written up
• Information on how other dioceses are doing
• Questionnaire – simple version for more general use – for those who can’t attend meetings but still may want a voice – eg surveymonkey
• To be a listener at each conversation

  Letter from Rt Rev John Hine (.pdf, 2Mb) (Listen to the audio)

  Feedback Sheet for Home Groups (MS Word, 400kb)

  Feedback Sheet for School Groups (MS Word, 400kb)

  Feedback Sheet for Parish Groups (MS Word, 400kb)

Partners in a Shared Task in Liverpool | Partners in a Shared task in Middlesbrough | Partners in a Shared Task in Plymouth