What are the religious education requirements for your denomination?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jimmy_B
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jimmy_B

Guest
What are the religious education requirements for your denomination?

Besides the most orthodox groups, and a few other exceptions, what other non-Catholic, Christian denominations require any religious instruction at all? I know for example that the Baptist have Sunday school for kids. I also know that Catholics are required to have 3 years of religious education for First Communion, 2 years for Conformation, Marriage Encounter is recommended prior to being married in the Catholic Church, RCIA for adults in nearly 1 Year long and so on…
 
In my Church, the religious education is more or less a local matter with national direction. In my congregation, we have weekly Sunday School. First Communion prep is an 8 week course of instruction. Confirmation is a 2.5 to 3 year program. New members coming from another Christian denomination attend an 8 week new member class. People coming from outside of the Christian faith are expected to go through basically the same confirmation program.

First Communion is sort of new thing for us. Back in the old days when I grew up, we couldn’t commune until after confirmation and it was always a three year program.
 
I’ve heard that the older and the more orthodox, Protestant denominations, like the Lutherans, for example, did that. I find the lack of response here interesting and a little alarming…Apparently, religious education requirements aren’t a big issue for many non-Catholic denominations…That’s unfortunate but explains a lot. They are all invited to come and attend our RCIA program.😃
 
For my denomination (Assemblies of God), the requirements for membership are minimal:

You have to have been validly baptized or commit to doing so in the near future. (We define that as believer’s baptism by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t matter in which church, as long as they did it that way. So in that respect, we’re the same as most Baptists.)

You have to agree to the denomination’s basic doctrines, which are explained in a two hour or so meeting. For my part, I’m glad my pastor’s write-up of them was just a skosh more liberal than what’s on the national website, else I’d have had trouble with a few of the points. (AG is a pretty conservative church. I am orthodox but moderate.) Then the names of the applicants are submitted to the church elders to be voted up or down – though I don’t imagine they’d reject anyone the pastor thought fit to submit.

We do provide religious instruction, and encourage everyone to participate. But it’s part of our regular activities, not part of the membership requirements.
 
For us, as with so many things, it depends on the temperament of the parish. This is a tragedy. My parish - a very traditional and orthodox one - ordinarily requires a year of preparation for adult Confirmation. A priest teaches many of the classes, so we have plenty of time to ask questions and learn in greater depth. The children go through a couple years of preparation and catechesis before they are Confirmed. This is exactly as it should be. I’ve been pleased that my parish take Christian education seriously. Sadly, however, I’ve attended two parishes where religious education was basically laughed at as a thing of the past. As a result, the people of those churches are not growing as they should. Anglicans/Episcopalians are all over the map on this.

I think that it’s safe to say that the overwhelming majority of Christian bodies have failed miserably in this area. We all see it in our own circles. And it’s needed now as much as ever. Lord have mercy.
 
Friend’s Meetings have weekly Bible studies and encourage individual study as well. When one chooses to become a Friend, they petition the Monthly Meeting of their request. A committee is formed to offer guidence and instruction in the beliefs and history of Friends. It typically offeres a guided study of early Quaker writings, books, journals and scripture studies. After a month…or a year…the canidate is interviewed and if the consensus of the Monthly Meeting approves…they are added to the rolls of “convinced Friends”.
 
Jimmy_B said:
What are the religious education requirements for your denomination?

Besides the most orthodox groups, and a few other exceptions, what other non-Catholic, Christian denominations require any religious instruction at all? I know for example that the Baptist have Sunday school for kids. I also know that Catholics are required to have 3 years of religious education for First Communion, 2 years for Conformation, Marriage Encounter is recommended prior to being married in the Catholic Church, RCIA for adults in nearly 1 Year long and so on…
Click to expand...
Sunday school from about 3 or 4 years old until 6th grade, where they go to catechism for 2 years and are confirmed in the 8th grade.
 
blazerdave said:
For us, as with so many things, it depends on the temperament of the parish. This is a tragedy. My parish - a very traditional and orthodox one - ordinarily requires a year of preparation for adult Confirmation. A priest teaches many of the classes, so we have plenty of time to ask questions and learn in greater depth. The children go through a couple years of preparation and catechesis before they are Confirmed. This is exactly as it should be. I’ve been pleased that my parish take Christian education seriously. Sadly, however, I’ve attended two parishes where religious education was basically laughed at as a thing of the past. As a result, the people of those churches are not growing as they should. Anglicans/Episcopalians are all over the map on this.

I think that it’s safe to say that the overwhelming majority of Christian bodies have failed miserably in this area. We all see it in our own circles. And it’s needed now as much as ever. Lord have mercy.
Click to expand...
Yes, that has been my observation too.

Most Anglicans do have Sunday Schools, which use a variety of programs. Many are based on the lectionary readings. Some are better than others, to say the least.

Anyone who is going to be confirmed is supposed to learn the catchecism in the Book of Common Prayer, which covers all the basics. It is written in a question and answer format, and in the past some parishes just had the kids memorize the answers. Usually now, if they bother with it at all they do actually teach them what it means.

The priest is supposed to be responsible to ensure that the candidates are suitably instructed and must present them as such to the Bishop.

Adult instruction for converts is supposed to be based on the same criteria. Often there are not official programs for this. (This isn’t necessarily bad, it can work well for the priest to directly teach new converts, and in small places it often makes the most sense.)

There is a diocesan program here for couples being married but it isn’t absolutely required, and also a video for baptism which you are supposed to watch and discuss with the priest.

My parish actually developed it’s own Sunday school program for grades primary to six, and recently started a toddler’s church program. We also have a lot of adult study programs. So for Lent we had :Praying the psalms with St Augustine", and we recently had a short class of a few weeks about the liturgy, one on the Anglican 39 Articles, one on Hooker (an Anglican theologian), and even one centered on movies about saints. Sometimes we have speakers - one I enjoyed was about the development of church architecture and sacred music and how they were related.
 
Presenty I go to an Evangelical Free Church which is baptistic. If a new believer comes in, on profession of faith, he/she receives a short course on the essentials of the faith (a couple of months I think), then when they ask to be baptised, they then become members of the church (the local church). Like Baptists, we have adult believers baptism only.

The last time I belonged to a local church, it was a baptist church. When I finally decide to join the local Evangelical Free Church, I will have to meet with the deacons/elders and the pastor and answer a few questions and give my testimony. The questions will mainly have to do with the theology of the EFC which is no problem for me as I have a firm understanding of most of the major evangelical theological positions. On adverage, it would take a few months for the new member to understand the information that they want members to know.

I have been in churches that baptised people almost as soon as they make a decision to trust Christ. It seem strange to me but I have to admit that it happened in the NT all the time.
 
As a requirement for baptism?

In LDS - none. It is a requirement to have a testimony of God and Jesus Christ, understand and believe in the process of repentance, have the desire to be baptized, and understand and agree to the baptismal covenants about to be made. That’s it. Oh, and yes, one has to be at least 8 years old (the age by which one is responsible for their own decisions).

But, every Sunday, all church members have sacrament and talks (similar to sermons) which usually lasts an hour.

In addition, there is Sunday School which is usually an hour as well. There are different classes here. For the new church members, they can go to Gospel Principles class which is the “basics”. There is Gospel Doctrine which is a more in-depth discussion of the doctrines of the church. There is a Marriage class for couples, youth classes for the teens, CTR classes for the younger kids, etc. etc.

And on top of that, the men (including teens) go to Elders Quorum and the women go to Relief Society - these are lessons that are specific to the roles and responsibilities of the men and women of the church. The young women have their own thing and so do the children. These are another hour.

So, in any given Sunday, LDS members have at least 3 hours of instruction. This is not all of it, though. There are meetings and visit teaching and home teaching and Activity Days and Scouts etc. etc. throughout the week. Then each family is encouraged to have Family Home Evening at least once a week where you discuss lessons relevant for the family. And then there are the General Conferences that goes from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon.

High-School-aged teen-agers additionally have seminary every weekday except on summer vacation. Usually for about an hour. They usually hold these at the very early hours before the children go to their respective high schools.

And then on top of that, everyone is encouraged to do their own personal scripture study.

So yeah, it can be really overwhelming to be a new convert to the LDS faith.
 
For JW’s there is virtually none. If the person can demonstrate going out in their door to door ministry for, I believe, 6 months for the minimum hours required (about 10 hours) and answer a series of basic questions during an appointment with one of their elders, then they get baptized at one of either their circuit assemblies or thr larger district conventions. There is a study of one of their publications during their formation at the beginning, but if the person desires to be baptized, then the above scenario is typical.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top