These fine ladies (biographies below) have accepted nomination to the CGSAC board. Please pray for them as they prepare to begin their service on the 2024/2025 CGSAC board.
Members, be sure to register for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) via Zoom if you cannot attend in Calgary.
Donna Joy
Donna Joy is a retired Anglican priest, married to David, mother of three adult children who, along with their partners, have produced seven grandchildren between the ages of 15 – 2.
Donna first discovered Sofia Cavalletti in the 1990’s while researching methods for nurturing children in their faith. It was, in fact, love at first sight and finally, in 2010 she served as Incumbent at St. Peter’s Winnipeg where there was an openness and commitment to CGS. In 2016/17 she enrolled at Aquinas Institute of Theology where she studied some of the methodologies and theology undergirding CGS; it is an experience she continues to value and for which she remains grateful.
Donna’s additional passions include spending time with her husband and grandchildren, offering Intentional Interim Ministry where needed, kayaking and cycling (when time permits), reading, gardening, quilting, spending time with friends… She has recently become a trained facilitator for the Mapping Exercise: Mapping the Ground we Stand on, a program designed in 2015 by the Anglican organization P.W.R.D.F. (Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund) for the purpose of helping Canadians become better informed of our history before the arrival of settlers.
If elected to this position, Donna looks forward to partnering with the dedicated people who are part of the CGS Board.
Lauren Aslin
Profession
A lifelong educator in Montreal, I took an early retirement as I felt The Lord calling me to faith accompaniment and to live my love for Him in spaces that would permit that explicitly as traditional non-denominational education does not.
In many Quebec schools, my subject was technology - and I taught the Integrating Technology core course for preservice teachers in the Department of Education at Concordia. I have a BA in Literature and Drama from McGill, a DEC in Information Systems, a Masters in Education from Concordia University, and a background in dance and music. I worked, my last 25 years, in a K-11 school, where I was initially Director of Technology and completed my tenure as Head of School. I term it "TechKNOWledgy -- as the digital world has become so implicated in how we know ourselves, others and our world. The technology with which I worked with students and teachers spanned sound recording, /editing, all things video, photography, Photoshop, design, Google Suite, as well as technologies for Science and Robotics. I also taught a Grade 11 course called: Innovation and Design, where students dreamed up and created their own curriculum around their humming focus of interest (architecture, social justice, industrial design, health services, etc). I have always been progressive and Montessorian in my approach to education: accompanying the learning is a personal journey that should be passionate; that 'the teacher' simply sets up the environment for natural curiosity to take over to compel the child to be fascinated and to fall in love with learning while growing into a unique compassionate self; and that the teacher 'accompanies the students and delights in their investigations, questions and discoveries.
Catechesis
I never thought that I 'could' be a catechist - until encountering CGS! My Level 1 training was with Paola and Rosella. I was not in the training for more than 20 minutes with them … and my entire soul relaxed and my 'heart window' threw open wide and began to revel in the process and content of what I can only describe as: Learning to live and to love in The Kingdom of God together. I knew, for the first time, that I had found a catechetical pedagogy that resonated, that finally made spiritual and emotional sense to me. The didactic catechetical methods I have known prior, had made me certain that I was not cut out to be 'a catechist', as they did not respect the innate curiosity and knowledge of Love that children exude, and seemed only to belabour head knowledge rather than to create a landscape for a child's experiential heart-mind encounters with Jesus, Himself. I spent the last year accompanying children in Atrium 1 at St. Ignatius with Rebecca Malone, and I often tell Rebecca that I now also want an Atrium for adults and an Atrium for seminarians and priests to be refreshed in Jesus' Joy, so that we/they, too, can draw close to The Lord in this very powerful and profound manner of the Atrium. I will be working with Rebecca this upcoming year in Atrium 1 and in Atrium 2 at St. Ignatius. My place of worship is St. Willibrord’s in Verdun, Montreal, and we are now in the process of planning and setting up Atriums 1 and 2 here.
I journal my observations, like treasure, after Atrium sessions -- and I have watched how the Holy Spirit draws a child to various and specific practical life skills or sacred stations (Parables or Altar) and how the Holy Spirit works His ‘personal theme of Love' through the session with each child. I have witnessed how the child enters the Atrium and looks about and 'knows' exactly what they need to do next and what next after that' (Love Himself calls to them through the materials) -- all the while the child is exploring, learning, sometimes narrating, sometimes showing, sometimes spontaneously telling, sometimes asking questions. I have learned so much from the children about the ways of The Good Shepherd both in what they tell me about Him and in the ways I have seen that He reveals Himself to each child. I began Level 2 training this summer with Anna and Kathleen in Toronto while staying with the Sisters of The Precious Blood, which was like spending a very saturated week living in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I am touched and humbled by this nomination and would willingly give of my time and whatever talents I can contribute to advance this important work in the Kingdom of God. Whether as a member of the Board or in prayer and as an active member of CGSAC, I am deeply committed to the work of bilingual catechist formation, to collaborative Atrium communities connected by profound fellowship opportunities. I am bilingual, and, living in Quebec, I am committed to being able to support Atrium participants in French and in English. In Montreal, I have begun a "Bilingual Atelier Atrium" at our church, which is a mutual support group in Montreal for Atrium development and CGS catechist fellowship. What this means practically is, those of us working in Atriums or interested in Atriums in the Montreal environs meet together in an Atrium 'maker space' here at St. Willibrord’s-- and we work together intensively on equipping the Atrium that is closest to opening next while sharing plans, questions, stories, insights, and inspirations! [Our next opening Atrium is on September 28th in Laval at Our Lady of Divine Love Mission Church]
I am and will continue to pray for the equipping of the Board of CGSAC (with or without me) - as this work is so precious and important in such a time of absolute relativism and identity confusion for children (and adults...).
In my little love learning from His Great Love,
Lauren
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