St. Anselm Parish Receives Mustard Seed Award for Outstanding Religious Education Program

St. Anselm Parish of Trenton, New Jersey will receive the Mustard Seed Award for its involvement of parents in the religious education and ongoing faith formation of its children and youth in parent-child retreats and other family-centered activities. Through the religious education of its young people, St. Anselm has been able to reach and evangelize parents and adults throughout the entire community. Rev. Gene Vavrick is pastor of the parish and Janice Santanello is its director of religious education. They will receive the award on behalf of the parish at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 8.

 

The Mustard Seed Award is given by the Religious Education Department of the National Catholic Educational Association during an award dinner at convention each year. The award is given to a parish that has created an innovative program for leading, implementing and nurturing parental participation in parish catechetical programs. Msgr. John Unger is credited with the awards idea, and it was first given in 1993.

 

The NCEA, founded in 1904, is a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction and service to fulfill the evangelizing, catechizing and teaching mission of the church. NCEA members include elementary schools, high schools, parish religious education programs and seminaries.

 

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