|
SPRED's Origin and Development
|
ORIGINS
EUROPE 1960
|
In the 1960s three priests in Europe struggled with the question of HOW to do Religious Education with people who had a learning disability. Realising that a rational, logical and wordy method was totally inappropriate, they developed an intuitive approach, paying much more attention to the environment and the sense of the sacred within the context of community.
They wrote down their "lessons" in books called the Method Vivre.
|
|
USA 1966
|
This written text was discovered by members of the Religious Education Staff (Special Needs) in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
They translated the books into English and spent two years studying and researching the Method under the guidance of the priests from Europe. The result was SPRED.
|
|
ENGLAND 1977
|
In 1977 a Sister from England studies SPRED at Loyola University in Chicago and introduced the method into Westminster archdiocese. A lecturer from a college in Liverpool spent a year in Chicago and set up a SPRED Diploma Course.
|
|
IRELAND 1980
|
SPRED's beginnings in Ireland date back to 1980. Today there are SPRED groups in the dioceses of Down and Connor, Armagh, Derry, Dublin and Limerick.
|
|
SCOTLAND, GLASGOW 1984
|
SPRED was introduced to Glasgow in 1984. A catechetical programme for children, teenagers and adults, it is parish-based and has flourished in the rich soil of the archdiocese. In the past fifteen years 250 catechists have been trained.
In 1988 At Andrew's College agreed to validate a Certificate Course in SPRED which has now been upgraded to a Diploma. Through this one-year full time course, SPRED Directors for other dioceses and leaders for other denominations are qualified.
|
|
PAISLEY, MOTHERWELL, 1990
ST ANDREW'S & EDINBURGH, 1997
GALLOWAY, 1998
|
SPRED is now part of the pastoral and catechetical life of five dioceses in Scotland:
Glasgow, Motherwell, Paisley, St Andrew's and Edinburgh and Galloway.
|
|
