JONESBORO — Looking for a way to grow in their faith, members of Blessed Sacrament Church in Jonesboro formed a weekly discussion group to enhance their knowledge of the Church and its teachings. Called the Catholic Conversation Circle, the group has grown in its early stages since its formation in the spring.
The group got its official start on June 14, but its origins started with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
“I was a convert from the Baptist faith and had grown up going to Bible studies,” said Melissa Jacks, who came into the Church in April. “I realized when I came into the Church that there wasn’t a Bible study that a new convert could jump right into after we finished our (RCIA) class. So another girl and I had the idea to start a Bible study.”
The duo passed their thoughts to other members and sponsors at the RCIA class, where more people signed on to the idea. A sign-up sheet was passed around on the last night of class.
“Apparently there was a pretty good desire for a Bible study,” Jacks said. “Once we threw it out there, people were more than willing to come and join.”
The RCIA process also helped inspire members to join the group and get involved.
“When we were going through our classes, they talked about how we would have to make decisions about what roles that you play within the Church,” said Stephanie Gotay, a recent convert. “This was really a role that we thought we could play. This was something that was needed, and we were going to dedicate our energy and commitment to make it happen.”
The group is currently using a 48-lesson course titled “Growing Faith Project” for the basis of its weekly discussion. The lessons are edited by Sister Maureen Shaughnessy, SC, and published by Twenty-Third Publications. The lessons are based on the catechism.
“It’s really not a Bible study. It’s really a sharing of faith and a deepening of our faith by this association,” group member Paul Black said. “It’s something that we feel needs to be done and expanded on.”
“It’s a way of developing community within the Church,” Gotay added.
Despite its early success, the group hasn’t been without some growing pains. It has had to switch nights, originally starting on Wednesdays and now meeting on Tuesdays and has also has had to switch meeting locations as well. They also ran into a few negative attitudes in the beginning as well.
“First, I think that people have to see that it works,” group member Susie Farley said. “Even when it got brought up, we got a few negative comments, saying, ’Oh, it won’t work.’ I think if people see that six months or a year from now that we’re still having it, they’ll think that there must be something to it.
“Maybe that’s a reason some of the other groups didn’t hang in there (in the past), because they had obstacles that came up.”
Looking at the future, the group hopes to have a dual role, growing to add more members from the parish and hoping to break off into smaller, more focused groups, and helping newcomers in the Church grow in their faith.
“When people go through RCIA every week and then join the Church, then not long after Easter, you’re dropped,” said convert and group member Carolyn Black. “A lot of people will just sort of start to drift off after that point. Maybe something like this would be something for them to come to and pull them into the Church.”
The group meets 7-8:30 p.m. each Tuesday in the conference room of the Blessed Sacrament Church office building.
“This group is filling a void, and it needs to be expanded to the whole parish,” Paul Black said. “It may take a generation or two of Catholics before something like that happens. But it has to start somewhere, and we thought we would be a nucleus for something like this.”
