It’s the last day of our week-long discussion of what you want from your parish with a topic that’s near and dear to me. For ten years, I’ve worked on the social and administrative side of parish life. I’ve battled the ongoing communications foibles and hurdles. It’s the invisible part of parish life, but such an important one!
How can your parish best aid you in your mission within your Domestic Church in these areas of parish life that make Church feel like home? How can your parish best communicate with you? What types of social programs would you like to see happening at Church? What great experiences can you share from your own parish, or other good ones you’ve heard of? If you were able to make a request of your pastor in this area, what would you ask for?
Please include your comments here or feel free to email me at blog@snoringscholar.com. And if you’d really like our unending gratitude, record a one-minute video answering this question and email it to me. In order for our talk to be a good resource for those attending, your feedback is essential and greatly appreciated!
One thing I heard my husband talk of was an article in his bulletin that was Ask Padre….when I suggested this to someone at my parish they said there is a question box at the back of the church (but in 7 years I have never heard any mention of it!). That person suggested there is ask the priest (what if you are shy??) and google but what about the non tech-y parishoners? Churches are getting better at resources and programs but I think we always must be aware of who is getting missed.
Kath, these are great! Thank you!
If I could change things, I would create a network for homeschoolers through the parish. I also would have general rules and regulations for the school but exceptions for those not going through the standard school program. I would also create exceptions to rules regarding sacraments and sacramental prep provided canonical requirements were met. Our parish has none of these which not only makes it harder for us to fit within their regulations but also makes us feel like outsiders. I’d expand on that, but I would lapse into a rant so I’ll end there. Simply, I’d make the running of the parish, the regulations of religious education and the rules about sacraments less about statues and more about people.
Very good points, Katherine. I think there’s a temptation in parishes to have a one-way-or-the-highway approach, and that’s not very helpful.
Because my parish serves over 3000 registered families, there is tremendous diversity, including the sometimes problem of one faith divided by three languages (English, Spanish and French). As such, I think the bringing together of the diverse people of our Parish on a regular basis through food, through feast, through the mass becomes critical.
So I’d hold a monthly Family dinner or breakfast to bring people together and cultivate fellowship.
I’d wish that the church would hold a permanent tri-lingual mass as part of its rotation of Sunday services, but the parish already runs 11 masses a weekend. It is always open, it is always doing, but I wonder if it is doing correctly, as I would also like it to have 24-7 adoration. I know other smaller parishes have it, I also know we are a Martha parish.
We have a soup kitchen from the basement 5 days out of 7 and a food pantry once a week. Our school serves as a parish hall and that constant crowding has lead to conflict in the past over the scant resource of space.
So if I were ever independently wealthy, I’d gift to the parish a building on the property the church owns across the street of a parish hall and middle school, so we could double the enrollment of our school, lower the price of tuition and ensure our school served even more of our parish. (It’s small). I’d also turn the choir loft which is not used by the choir into a cry room with glass walled in and rocking chairs and a good speaker system so that the mothers and fathers with squirmy people would be able to still hear the mass and have a place they could comfort/ quiet their babies and still see and participate in the mass.