Service to the Church and the World
Echo participants engage in service to the Church through one of two tracks: Echo Parish Catechetical Leadership or Echo Teaching Theology. All Echo participants are matched with a mentor at their placement to help guide their experience and assess their professional development.
Echo Parish Catechetical Leadership: Work full-time in a parish setting with a variety of catechetical ministries. Apprentices may work with RCIA, religious education, youth ministry, adult faith formation, social justice ministry, or other parish ministries. Limited opportunities are available to work in catechetical leadership at the diocesan level or in full-time campus ministry in a Catholic high school or Newman Center parish.
Echo Teaching Theology: Teach theology in a Catholic high school or junior high school. Teachers also participate in school extracurricular activities to broaden their contributions to the school outside of the classroom. Limited opportunities are available to work part-time in campus ministry while teaching theology.
Echo and its partner dioceses offer various opportunities for professional and ministerial development throughout each year. Apprentices and theology teachers are frequently invited to lead diocesan ministerial experiences, such as young adult ministry events, youth ministry retreats, and professional development workshops, that further contribute to their formation. In addition, some Echo participants attend diocesan and national conferences dedicated to pastoral and catechetical praxis.
Both the mentor relationship and the direct theology teaching or ministry experience, as well as formal theological, catechetical, and pedagogical training and integrative formation, serve to prepare Echo participants for their catechetical ministry within Echo and beyond.