St. Peter's
Seminary

Field Education 5281
Parish Ministry 

2009 - 2010

A. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to discuss the mission of the Church within the parish schools, with particular attention to teaching the faith in a classroom setting. Students will be individually assigned to a particular parish and the ministry will be within the Catholic Schools. It is expected that the experience so gained will help the students to understand the dynamics of shared responsibility, collaboration and team work. Within the context of the school ministry, students will be under a supervisor who is expected to assess their performance at the end of their placement. Also, as part of the course, students will participate in four peer reflections along with four written reflections. A Final Reflection Paper on the student’s experience gained from the pastoral placement brings the course to a logical conclusion 

B. GOALS

This course will assist students to grow in the following knowledge, skills and attitudes.

KNOWLEDGE:

1. To know and understand how pastoral ministry is generally carried out in a Parish-community setting
2. To be sensitive and attentive to the Church’s social teaching and how to develop appropriate application of the teaching in a Parish-community setting
3. To have knowledge of Parish environment where one will be doing one’s pastoral ministry
4. To know one’s own strengths and weaknesses as applied to pastoral situations in a Parish.

SKILLS:

1. To test the call to and aptitude for pastoral ministry.
2. To integrate the students theological knowledge with pastoral experience through theological reflection
3. To enable the students to reflect upon their pastoral identity within the Catholic tradition
4. To help the student identify and articulate areas of needed personal and professional growth in working in a Parish-Community setting.

ATTITUDES:

1. To recognize and affirm their prior ministerial experiences and unique gifts for pastoral ministry.
2. To encourage the practice of theological reflection on ministerial experience as a life-long habit
3. To appreciate the collaborative nature of pastoral ministry vis-à-vis ordained and lay, women and men and a Parish-community setting
4. To appreciate and recognize the reciprocal nature of giving and receiving in pastoral ministry.
 

C. STRUCTURE OF THE PARISH MINISTRY

1st Semester – Weeks of visitation (3 hrs/visit) [travel time is extra]
 

Sept. 14 -18	Sept. 21 - 25
Sept. 28 - Oct. 2	Oct. 5 - 9
Oct. 13 -16	Oct. 19 - 23
Oct. 26 - 30	Nov. 2 - 6
Nov. 9 - 13	Nov. 16 - 20
Nov. 23 - 27	Nov. 30 - Dec. 4

 2nd Semester – Weeks of visitation (3 hrs/visit) [travel time is extra]

Jan. 4 - 8	Jan. 11 - 15
Jan.18 - 22	Jan. 25 - 29
Feb. 1 - 5	Feb. 8 - 12
Feb. 22 - 26	Mar. 1 - 5
Mar. 8 - 12	Mar. 15 - 19
Mar. 22 - 26	Mar. 29 - Apr. 2

D. ASSESSMENT

1. Student’s participation in four Theological Reflection Group discussions – two per semester during scheduled Monday Formation Evenings (20%)

i.	October 19, 2009	7:00 pm
ii.	November 23, 2009	7:00 pm
iii.	February 1, 2010	7:00 pm
iv.	March 22, 2010	7:00 pm

2. Student shall prepare four Theological Reflection Papers (300 – 350 words) two per semester on one’s personal response to questions in relation to experiences in one’s parish placement (20%)

Due Dates:

i.	October 16, 2009
ii.	November 22, 2009
iii.	January 29, 2010
iv.	March 19, 2010

3. Students shall prepare a Final Theological Reflection Paper (7-8 pages) to show how one has integrated The Art of Theological Reflection and developed an integrated pastoral identity (30%) Due: March 31, 2010

4. Student’s supervisor in one’s placement shall evaluate the student’s performance (30%)
 

E. POLICY REGARDING SUBMISSION OF ASSIGNMENTS

I. Assignments are due by 3:00 p.m. on the dates as given above.

II. It is the responsibility of the student to organize his or her work so that the assignments are completed on time. For a serious reason, a student may approach the professor before the due-date, and may be granted an extension at the discretion of the professor. Any medical reasons will be confirmed by proper documentation as approved by the Dean’s Office. A penalty of 10% of the value of the assignment will be deducted for each day it is overdue without permission.

F. POLICY REGARDING ACADEMIC OFFENCES

I. The Senate of the University of Western Ontario requires that students be informed of the policy regarding academic offenses, accordingly:

Scholastic offences (i.e. plagiarism and other forms of cheating) are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a scholastic offence, at the following website: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.

II. Checking for Plagiarism:
Required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for this purpose. Submitted papers will be included as source documents in the reference database for future similar purpose. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement between the University and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com).