The St. Alban’s Anglican Chapel at The Citadel endeavors to be a place where young people with little to no exposure to the Christian faith can ask questions, explore faith, and express doubts and hesitations without judgment or fear of rebuke. In part, because of our openness and hospitality towards those exploring their faith, the St. Alban’s Anglican Chapel has baptized over 200 new Christians since 2018.
New Christians need help learning the faith and orienting themselves towards the Christian life. In order to facilitate this kind of spiritual growth amongst our new believers, we began developing our own catechism in the fall of 2024. A dedicated group from our sophomore class, led by Chandler Greene, Abe Whitesell, Banks Scarpa, Jeb Bruner, and Mac Liddle have been gathering 4th class cadets in the St. Alban’s Chaplain’s office to work through questions of the Christian faith to advance their understanding of the Christian life.
According to Greene, “being able to help witness someone growing in their Christian faith through the catechism is the ultimate leadership opportunity.” The 4th class cadets participating in these catechism groups, notes Whitesell, “have so much joy and drive to learn more about what their faith means to them, truly making it their own. It has been a joy to see how the Lord works through people going through the stress of the 4th class system.
To better understand the catechism project, we sent Rob and the cadets involved a set of questions.
Questions for Rob Sturdy
In your own words, what is a catechism?
A catechism is a simple tool for teaching the Christian faith. Historically, it has been presented as a text, though recently pictures, symbols, and even short videos are incorporated in modern-day catechisms. The catechism most people are familiar with comes in the form of short questions and answers that can be easily memorized, though before Protestantism the format for catechisms was a question followed by long, thorough answers.
The ACNA has one – a new one they just released. What made you decide to have the cadets develop their own?
It has not been uncommon within the broad history of Christianity, and even within the narrow history of Anglicanism, for ministers to write catechisms specifically for their local congregations. The ACNA catechism is very good, but there are some things that make it impractical for us. First, many of our students don’t come from Christian homes, so the short questions and answers aren’t enough to facilitate good discussion for people without the necessary background knowledge. Second, the number of questions (368) is too much for us to move through over the course of a normal school year. Third, we want to speak accessibly to young people growing up in a post-Christian age. Finally, for a variety of reasons, we were interested in producing a more contemplative, meditative experience with our catechism. Based off of the feedback we have received so far, I think we are achieving this.
How many students participated?
We had about 20 regular participants.
How often did they meet?
Each group met once per week. The groups were all led by students.
How did it work? What was the format for your time together?
Two upper-class cadets convened the groups and led them. Our catechism has a question and answer, taken directly from or based off of the catechism in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. These are followed by a reading broken into three sections. Students take turns reading the commentary, then pause for discussion. The commentary on the question is meant to prime the pump for discussion. The discussion is aided by suggested questions for the group to discuss together.
What was the benefit?
This was an easy way to give leadership to eligible students. It was also an easy way for us to find small groups for our students to make connections. All of our students reported growing in their faith and growing in their relationships within our community.
How did you see individuals change/grow through the process?
One surprising aspect of the catechism groups was that the routine of it, and the spiritual nature of the discussions, had a “grounding” effect. Our students are very busy, and they live in a very busy, loud, and even frantic world. The catechism groups were calming and grounding for those who participated, which speaks to the meditative/contemplative experience we were aiming for.
What was the best thing, for you, about the experience?
I like that this is something our community will have produced, that they can be proud of. Every student who participated in the “beta” trial run will be listed as a “co-author,” and we hope to publish this collectively under the name of the St. Alban’s Chapel.
What kinds of questions does their catechism answer?
Following the outline of the catechism found in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, our catechism looks at the traditional themes of the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the two dominical sacraments. Where our catechism may be unique, is we try to address the questions, doubts, and interests of young people who have a serious investment in their spiritual life as Christians, or those seriously exploring Christianity.
Questions for the Students
How did your thoughts about God or experience of faith change through the effort?
“Being in a small group with three or four other people interested in learning further developed my own understanding of the faith, not just the reading, but hearing the different perspectives of other Christians in small groups where we could share freely.” -Ezekiel Sulonen
“My faith grew positively. It helped me understand my faith better, especially difficult things like the Trinity.” -Trey Varn
“The catechism discussions opened up perspectives and new ways of looking at faith, especially things like the Trinity which we don’t discuss much in large groups.” -Chase Bray
What question did you like working on the most/least?
“The question where we dealt with identity and the kardia was something I had never heard of before, and it was really transformative. The idea is that God made a core “me” in his image, the “heart” (kardia) of who I am. Sin has added layers on top of this, distorting the real me. God’s work is to peel back these layers of sin to reveal the real me, made in his image.” Chandler Greene
“Early on, talking about the ‘Kardia,” I enjoyed talking through that.” -Ezekiel Sulonen.
“The Trinity” -Barret Face
How would you describe the experience to someone who is not a Christian?
“When you first get into your faith, you can skip over doubts and questions, especially when you’re young. But to have a guided discussion where we don’t skip over doubts and questions and really think about it, makes you more confident in your faith and makes it your own.” -Banks Scarpa
“I would say that we broke down the basis of our faith and what we believe. It’s almost like our faith is something we already had, but we broke it down to understand it better, then rebuilt it.” -Chase Bray
“I would say it is like short lessons, into the Christian faith, giving an understanding of who we are, what we believe, and why we say what we say. My experience was open, understanding, free to question and explore.” -Ezekiel Sulonen.
“You have to listen to the words in the catechism, and what others are saying, and really soak it in. It’s something I’d be thinking about all week.” -Barret Face
We hope to publish the St. Alban’s Catechism sometime in the near future so the wider church can benefit from this tool being developed by our chaplain and our cadets. Rather than a single author, the catechism will be published listing the names of those who participated in the first catechism groups, as well as every cadet who provided feedback and edits. Beta versions are currently available upon request for our partner churches. For details, contact Chaplain Rob at rob@stacitadel.org.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 edition of the Jubilate Deo. View the Jubilate Deo.
