LITURGY TEAM REPORT

Meeting of December 10, 2007

Attendees: Jeff Blice, Fr. Patrick Carrion, Bill Crosthwait, Dave Ebner, Deacon Larry Matheny, Jacqueline Scaletti, Cathy Scoppa

Notes/Minutes:

• Bill opened the meeting with a prayer. Jeff Blice is to lead us in the opening prayer for the January Liturgy Team meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, January 14^th, at 7:30PM, in the Ijamsville, Thomas T. Polk Social Hall.

• The November Liturgy Team meeting report was distributed for review prior to the meeting and copies were available at the meeting. The November meeting report stands as documented.

• Liturgical Ordo for December and January – The calendar for December and January was distributed prior to the meeting and copies were available at the meeting. The calendar was reviewed with the following comments:

• On December 24^th the calendar calls for an 11:00pm Mass. That Mass time should be changed to 10:00pm. On December 25^th the calendar calls for a 9:00am Mass in the Country Church. That Mass will be in the Ijamsville Church. Bill will arrange to have the calendar updated.
• On December 15^th the Children’s Pageant will be at 7:00pm in the Ijamsville Church. The Ijamsville Social Hall should be reserved from 6:30pm until 9:00pm for the “Reception” after the Children’s Pageant. Bill will arrange to have the calendar updated.
• There is no morning Mass listed on December 26^th. There will be a Mass that day in the Country Church. Bill will arrange to have the calendar updated.
• On December 31^st there should be a Vigil Mass for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God at 5:00pm. Bill will arrange to have the calendar updated.
• There will be no Mass in the Country Church at 8:45am on January 1^st. There will be a 10:00am Mass in the Ijamsville Church on January 1^st. Bill will arrange to have the calendar updated.
• There will be training for new EMs on the 8^th of January. Jeff will get an email to Gloria with information on when and where this will take place so that can be put on the calendar.
• On the weekend of the 19^th and 20^th of January there should be a petition for an end to racial discrimination. Bill will arrange to have that done by Lori.
• On the weekend of the 19^th and 20^th of January there should be a petition for the dignity of all humans, including the unborn and a prayer for the restoration of the legal guarantee of right to life. Bill will arrange to have that done by Lori.
• We need to reserve the Church for time to prepare the environment for Christmas. Bill will get time reserved on the calendar for December 23^rd and 24^th.

• Old Business:
• Liturgical Ministers for Lessons and Carols – Lectors have been recruited and Ushers should not be a problem since there is no collection to be taken up and the music ministry anticipates between 75 and 100 people attending
• Masses on the weekend of the 29^th and 30^th of December (Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus , Mary, and Joseph) – We will have a blessing of families at the end of all Masses that weekend and we will have the Ushers recruit “families” to bring up the gifts at each of the Masses that weekend. Bill will follow-up on that.

o “In-Pew” recruitment of Liturgical Ministers – A bulletin insert targeted at recruiting new Liturgical Ministers and getting current Liturgical Ministers to update their contact information and encouraging current Ministers to volunteer for more than one ministry, will in the bulletin in early-to-mid January. This timing seems to work out such that new Ministers can be trained and on the next schedule which starts in March. Bill will follow-up. Dave suggested that this should be an actual “in-pew” recruitment where parishioners fill in the form at Church and put it into the collection basket or give the form to an Usher at the end of Mass. Bill will follow up with Fr. Patrick to see if this can be done.

o Scheduling of Liturgical Ministers – It was suggested that with the last schedule (December thru February) the Ministry coordinators did not have sufficient time to review the assignments prior to the schedule being distributed to all Ministers. A number of issues with the last schedule were discussed. Larry will follow up with Sandy to get additional information on how the scheduler program works and what might alleviate some of the issues identified. It was suggested that the email request for March, April, and May preferences go out to all Liturgical Ministers on February 1^st, requesting a response by February 8^th. The scheduler program could then be run on February 9^th and the results be distributed to the Ministry coordinators on February 9^th. The target would be to get the schedule reviewed, corrected, and distributed to all Liturgical Ministers by the weekend of February 16^th/17^th.

o Advent Newsletter – There will be none this year. Information which was typically in the Advent Newsletter will be in a Christmas letter to all parishioners from Fr. Patrick.

o Vacant positions on the Liturgy Team – The positions of Sacristan and Chair of the Liturgical Environment Committee are still not filled but we seem to be getting by in these areas without the positions being “formally” filled. Jeff did ask that whoever is monitoring the hosts and wine identify and document where the supply is kept. Bill will follow up with Joyce on this.

o Youth Mass – We are going to continue to have sign-ups for Liturgical Ministers for the monthly Youth Mass until we can get to a point where there are a stable number of youth Ministers available for each of the Masses and we can then schedule adults to supplement the available youth.

o Procedures for Liturgical Ministers documented on the web site - Bill requested that each of the Ministry coordinators review the web site material for the ministry they represent and get corrections/updates to him.

o Dave pointed out that there are “maintenance items” like toilet tissue for the restrooms, which are required on weekends. We will discuss this further in January to determine if something has been or can be defined to address this.

• New Business:
• Fr. Patrick discussed the information that is being requested by the Office of Clergy Personnel to define a thorough, clear, concise, informative and current picture of the strengths, needs, and issues facing our Parish as a new Pastoral Leader is identified. Bill will send each member of the Liturgy Team a copy of the documents we are being requested to complete. We are asking each Liturgy Team member to provide input by Sunday, December 16^th, so that the comments can be compiled into one document as input from the Liturgy Team.
• We discussed the positioning of EMs for distribution of Communion. We also covered the flow of the congregation for Communion. It was suggested that changes be incorporated after the Advent/Christmas season.
• We discussed the number of “Second Collections” and impact on the Liturgy. Fr. Patrick will send an email to the finance committee to initiate discussion on the number of “Second Collections” we have each month.

• Ministry Reports:
• Cross Bearers and Lectors – Dave reported that two new Lectors will be trained in the coming weeks.
• EMs – Jeff reported that there are a couple of new EMs. We discussed leaving one chalice on the Altar after distribution of Communion. Jeff will handle getting that announced to the EMs.
• CLOW – A weekly reminder of CLOW assignments will be sent out each week. Fr. Patrick pointed out that we have not had dismissal for CLOW for several of the past weeks.

• Larry led the team in a closing prayer. Jacqueline is to prepare the closing prayer for the January Liturgy Team meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, January 14^th, at 7:30PM, in the Ijamsville, Thomas T. Polk Social Hall.

NEXT MEETING:

Monday, January 14^th, at 7:30PM, in the Ijamsville, Thomas T. Polk Social Hall