a foray into CGS

Tomorrow I'm off to the Netherlands for an intensive week of training in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (in English). I had meant to blog about this already back when I registered, but I got stuck when I failed to figure out how to put a pdf of the course leaflet up here. (Now I've copied what the training center have done, which is to link to it from an image - see below.)

Instead I'll just give you a few highlights: "The course will cover the first year program of level 1 of the method." Our trainer will be Linda Kaeil, from Portland, Oregon. She "is a long time experienced catechist and trainer of catechists in the United States, Germany, England, Poland, Australia, Canada and Africa. She trains the Missionaries of Charity (sisters of Mother Theresa) ... and teaches catechesis to children of 3 to 12 years at the Franciscan Montessori Earth School." Wow!

I think of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd as the mother of Godly Play. Certainly, Jerome Berryman drew heavily upon CGS in creating Godly Play. Although I've read a fair bit about CGS (for example, on Leslie's blog), this will be my first experience of it. I've read some comparisons which are so obviously skewed in favor of one or the other that they don't strike me as fair. But it does seem true that "Godly Play is more easily modified for nonliturgical churches" (to quote the book Children Matter), and that the training for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is much more intense (see this post by Cindy Coe).

I'll let you know how I get on!