The ASK model of learning and teaching utilizes a “visitor space” (in this case, the church and the various spaces within it) to engage different modes of awareness, where the engagement becomes a source of lifelong learning. Within the context of a “fusty old building” (a 19th century utilitarian building in any of our towns), visitors discover that we all have the potential capacity to develop curiosity and faith in the hope of a better future.
Is there a Problem converting a Sacred Space to a Educational Uses?
And what about our Cemetery?
Engagement in our environment is an important skill in which religious and social education are easily brought into balance. By seeking to see the church’s buildings and grounds through the lens of ASK, we are looking for ways to create new distinctions and recognition of meaningful linkages between the present and our past.
Our gravestones have always told a story, and yet the deeper stories were inaccessible to most of us, since few of those souls are considered ‘historical.’ Most of those in our graveyard are part of the narratives contained in our church records, which shall be on display by 2025 in the Parish Hall exhibit area, and online at https://philadelphiacongregations.org/records/ . [ All of St. Michael’s manuscripts, letters, and parish documents have been digitized and currently reside on a server in the Philadelphia region documentation program. They are only waiting funding for cataloguing and addition of meta-data to be available online. ]
Most certainly, the addition of QR-code buttons to gravestones and tablets throughout our grounds enhances a spiritual connection to the church family that has come before. Similarly, the educational markers telling the story of church ‘gardens’ from Colonial times to cultural history of cemetery parks is a spiritual story, for it entails reflection on the perception of death and changes in culture.
The future of our democracy is dependent on learning the skills which the ASK paradigm seeks to bring about. The universal longing for freedom which each of us share can be connected to the infinite variety of discoveries to be made through study of the past. It can be stated that growth shall always find its roots in the narrative of our past, and as a civilization, when the human family itself grows and trades goods and family members with each other, we are mutually responsible for many heritages. Without tolerance and respect for all our pasts, the roots of civilization shall be unstable, and the future shall be less than free.