Jayne Mondoy, left, holds the “Telly” award won by the “One Ohana” sacramental video series production team last year. With her is series producer Bernadette Baraquio Hamada.
Educational videos on three sacraments created by the diocesan Office of Religious Education and local producer Bernadette Baraquio Hamada recently won a prestigious national prize for innovative evangelization.
The National Conference for Catechetical Leaders selected the “One Ohana” sacramental video series as the 2015 winner of its diocesan-level “New Wineskins Award.” Jayne Mondoy, diocesan religious education director, will accept the award during the NCCL’s awards luncheon May 20 in Buffalo, New York.
Last year, the series also won a bronze “Telly” award, a secular honor recognizing excellence in non-broadcast religious productions.
The “One Ohana” video series consists of three 20-minute DVDs on Baptism, Eucharist and Reconciliation. They feature commentary by Hawaii’s clergy and lay Catholics on the sacraments’ theology and their personal spiritual impact.
The sacraments’ beauty
Mondoy and diocesan Office of Worship director Deacon Modesto Cordero came up with the idea of creating local catechetical videos several years ago.
“We sat down and said, you know, the sacraments are so beautiful,” Mondoy said. “How can we help others better understand the beauty of the sacraments so we can live our lives inspired by Christ? We can only do so much person to person. We must use the resources of the electronic age.”
Deacon Cordero, who also has a background in theatre and drama, had worked previously with Mondoy in adult faith formation. He thought it was a good time to freshen up the diocese’s sacramental resources.
“I used to use a video for baptism preparation that was based in the 1970s,” Deacon Cordero said. Viewers would laugh at the dated scenes of “people wearing those big bell-bottom pants,” he said.
“Instead of looking at the message, they were just looking at the people,” he added. He told Mondoy that the diocese should create its own videos reflecting “a local environment, a local taste, to make it more attractive to our audience today.”
Mondoy slowly took to the project, inspired by the teachings of recent popes and bishops encouraging the use of local culture to evangelize.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in his apostolic exhortation following the 2008 General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, wrote “God does not reveal himself in the abstract, but by using languages, imagery, and expressions that are bound to different cultures.”
In the National Directory for Catechesis, the U.S. bishops said, “The inculturation of the Gospel message is an urgent mission for dioceses in the United States because it correlates faith and life.”
These insights spurred Mondoy’s enthusiasm for a series using Hawaii’s richly diverse people and landscape.
“We set out not to present a set of abstract doctrines, but to tell a story of faith incarnated in a way that is already familiar to us,” she said. “We have a unique story to tell the world that connects our culture to the gifts and graces we receive in the sacraments.”
With funding from the With Grateful Hearts capital campaign, Mondoy and Deacon Cordero sought the help of Bernadette Baraquio Hamada, a local media personality with experience in journalism, broadcast production and television entertainment, and a Catholic.
Sharing professional skills
Baraquio had already produced videos of local ordinations and for the diocesan Office for Social Ministry. She gladly jumped onboard the “One Ohana” project. Sharing her skills for the church, she said, “is part of my ministry and my vocation.”
“The work I do for the diocese is the part that fulfills me,” Baraquio said. “I feel good at the end of the day knowing what I’ve produced is reaching a great number of people with an important message that they wouldn’t otherwise have received.”
She helped come up with the “One Ohana” title, which means “One Family” — “a common theme that’s going to connect all the sacraments.”
Later joining the “One Ohana” team was Blessed Sacrament Father Bob Stark, the diocese’s Office for Social Ministry director.
Each sacramental video runs less than 30 minutes, belying the hundreds of hours of work put into them.
A project generally begins with weeks brainstorming the scriptural and catechetical elements to be taught. Bishop Larry Silva is also brought into the discussion.
Clergy and lay Catholics are sought for interviews. Filming locations are selected. Footage of Island nature and local church events is collected.
Baraquio pulls everything together in her editing process, poring through “stacks” of transcribed interviews and hours of video. The video team and Bishop Silva review the first cuts of the film. Sometimes scenes need to be reshot or changed to correct or enhance the message.
“We have to make sure every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ is crossed,” Mondoy said.
The team sees the production itself as a spiritual process.
It is “a blessed gift,” Father Stark said, “to be part of this collaborative spiritual journey.”
Added Mondoy, “My faith has grown deeper with every project. To be able to witness the power of Christ in the sacraments and how this influences the lives of other people is very, very powerful.”
“It’s a good way of stewardship, using our talents, our time, to create a new way of evangelization in our diocese,” Deacon Cordero said.
Father Stark said that all can benefit from the videos which remind the viewer how to be Catholic, “combining all three essential components of our faith: sacraments, Scripture and service.”
“Everyone is invited to participate in the sacraments as opportunities to deepen our connection with God and each other,” he said.
The videos have received a “nihil obstat” from the bishop, ensuring their doctrinal correctness. The DVDs have been sent free to every parish, school and military chapel in Hawaii with a companion packet of printed teaching materials.
The “One Ohana” videos may be viewed on the diocesan website at http://www.catholichawaii.org/catholic-essentials/sacrament-videos.aspx. Additional DVDs may be ordered there.
The team is already conceptualizing its next video on the sacrament of Confirmation.
