North America Association for the Catechumenate — a process of faith formation and discipling that began in the early centuries of the Christian Church — has been reclaimed in the twentieth century, primarily as a result of the work of the Roman Catholic Church in the development of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. During the past two decades non-catholic Christian churches have slowly begun to understand the catechumenate as a process of faith formation and spiritual development for twenty-first century people who have little or no previous association with the Christian faith. The catechumenate is also being adapted in congregations for renewal in the processes of the Baptism of infants and children, in confirmation ministry, and in the affirmation of Baptism or the reaffirmation of the Baptismal covenant by the already baptized.