Published January 21, 2007

RE Teacher of Year Eases Body and Soul

By Eileen Dugan
Sooner Catholic

OKLAHOMA CITY — A minister to soul and body, Ann Parrington teaches Confirmation classes and Religious Education at Christ the King Catholic Church when not treating children as a pediatrician in private practice. Because of her      ability to bring about the spiritual growth and social involvement of the young in her classes, the Catholic Foundation of Oklahoma recognized Parrington as Religious Education Educator of the Year for 2006.

After high school, Parrington, of Oklahoma City, enrolled at Arizona State University where she earned a journalism degree. She worked in Arizona for 10 years as a broadcast journalist before deciding to return to Oklahoma to go to medical school. In high school she had felt “a call” to medical missionary work, but back then, she said, “I wasn’t sure how to make it happen.”

Parrington graduated from OU Medical School and became a pediatrician because she likes       children. She has been working as a medical doctor for six years and during this time also serving as a catechist at Christ the King. “I like working with kids,” she said. “I also like to teach. As a catechist I feel I can make a positive difference in these kids’ lives.”Parrington described her schedule as “a juggling act.” But she said the results of her efforts to her seem priceless.

“The spiritual foundation we give these kids can make a real difference in their lives,” she said. “I make the time to teach as a catechist because it is so important. And, teaching is an extension of what I already do as a pediatrician.”

According to Gayle Semtner, Parrington’s former director of Religious Education at Christ the King and the person who nominated her for this award, the doctor/catechist helps her Confirmation candidates “learn, share, and pray” and recognize “their need for God’s forgiveness and love”.

As part of her teaching process, Parrington encourages the teens in her charge to join her in practicing the corporal works of mercy. Together they load trucks with supplies for a Catholic mission in Peru, organize, stuff and distribute Christmas stockings to nursing homes, and feed the homeless, Semtner said.

Apart from her students, Parrington organizes and participates in two mission trips a year. She has gone on medical missions to Peru and to Africa, to minister to orphans. These mission trips are her way of answering that “call” she first heard in high school.

Semtner also recognized in her letter of nomination that Parrington has taken the time to develop an effective program on the Ten Commandments for her RE students.

Last summer, Semtner said, Parrington even took a day off from work to offer her Ten Commandments program to the fifth- and sixt-graders involved in Christ the King’s Café Light program. This weeklong sequence of events resembles a vacation Bible school.

“I teach seventh- and eighth-graders and the Confirmation class, which is made up of mostly sophomores and juniors plus a few freshmen. So, I’m usually dealing with 14- to 16-year-olds. These kids can read, write and quote the Ten Commandments, but when it comes to applying these principles to their own lives, it’s a whole different story. For instance, take the Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not steal’.’

“These kids don’t hold up banks, but how many of them use their iPods and CD burners to copy music or burn copies of CDs and don’t see anything wrong with that? I talk to them about copyright laws. They have a hard time wrapping their minds around the idea that ‘borrowing’ someone else’s hard work in these ways is wrong,” Parrington said.

Getting to know her students is what  Parrington likes best about being a catechist. Knowing her pupils keeps her connected to this age group, which helps her relate better to her pediatric patients, who are the same age. Her biggest challenge as a catechist is coming up with creative ways to present her material so that she can keep the interest of her students.

Parrington was genuinely surprised to be nominated and to have won the RE award as Catechist of the Year. She acknowledges that “a ton of people” support the RE program at Christ the King and that her success there has much to do with the support and help she receives her students’ parents and the staff at Christ the King as it has to do with her. “I know that I can’t do my job well without their help,” she said.