Loyola Press Intergenerational Event Review

Activity Centers for Intergenerational Event: The Passion and Resurrection of our Lord
From: Loyola Press Online
http://www.loyolapress.com/activity-center-good-friday-intergenerational-event.htm

Loyola Press offers numerous suggestions for an intergenerational event that will help families engage in the Triduum. The resource offers 10 different activity centers that coordinators can mix and match to meet their time, space, and participant needs. It suggests ending with Good Friday prayer service that includes an Agony in the Garden skit.

Fowler's Stages of Faith clearly outlines 6 different stages of faith that you may find in any given parish setting. The challenge for any coordinator planning an intergenerational event is to include activities that cross both generations and stages of faith development. Unfortunately, Loyola Press' Activity Centers fails on both accounts.

Of the 10 suggested centers, 7 of them are entirely child centered. They include basic arts and crafts projects, coloring, planting seeds, etc. While there are times that adults are included in the lesson description, they're participation is limited to assisting the children in creating whatever project the activity calls for. 2 of the centers include family handouts that do reach across the parent-child generational gap including questions and comments that are appropriate for each generation. However, these handouts do nothing to include older children (the activities are all elementary or preschool level) or generations beyond the parent.

In terms of Fowler's stages of faith, a majority of the activities are geared toward stages one and two. The final prayer service and drama has the potential to reach beyond into stage 3, as do some of the parent-directed activities, but this potential will only be reached if the leader of the activity makes an active effort to reach into stage 3 during the activity. None of the activities suggested will reach stages 4-6.

While the variety of suggestions and the freedom to create your own event that fits your needs makes this resource appear to be very valuable, a closer look at the activity suggestions demonstrates that at it's core, this is really just an elementary/preschool resource that includes parents as volunteers. It has the potential to be a great resource for this age group, but does not truly live up to its name as an intergenerational resource.