COMBINED LITURGY COMMITTEE

                                                   THE PARISHES OF ST. IGNATIUS & ST. MARY

SOMERSWORTH & ROLLINSFORD

 

Preliminary Minutes of the August 10, 2009 meeting.

 

August 12, 2009

 

1.  The Liturgy Committees of St Ignatius and St Mary parishes met on August 10th to develop the liturgical direction of the parishes. Attending were: Fr. Mike, Deacon Bill, Ron Cormier, Arlene Fall, Beatrice Lachance, Claire Menard,  Elizabeth Mayo, Lee Reublinger, Lou Michaud, Maggie Roberge, Nancy Argue, Richard Bernier, Roxanne Day, Sue Huff, and Wilhelmina Wiegman.

 

2. Fr Mike opened the meeting with prayer.

 

3. The minutes of the last meeting (July 13) were accepted.

 

4.  PPC feedback. Lee met with the council at their August 5th meeting. He reviewed our minutes with them. FX applauded the addition of the 5:30 pm and 7 am Masses at HT. Tom Brown gave accolades to Ron Cormier for his work with the altar servers. Fr Mike also thanked Elizabeth Mayo for her “behind the scenes” work as Sacristan of St Martin and announced that he had selected Roxanne Day to be the Sacristan of Holy Trinity. He also thanked Ray Roberge for being the Sacristan of the 11:30 am Mass at Holy Trinity.

 

5. Parish celebration. a. The mini retreat at Holy Trinity from July 27th to July 30th was attended daily by about 50 people. Fr Mike was the presenter and was terrific.

b. The Adoration and Mass beginning at 6 pm, July 31st was only attended by ~ 30 people. A suggestion was made that it might have been better if the retreat had been extended to the 31st instead of having what appeared to be two different St Ignatius celebrations.

 

6. Feast of the Assumption, Aug 15th, is not a Holy Day of Obligation because of falling on a Saturday but we will have a Mass at 9 am at St. Mary’s. The St Mary team was alerted that the normal contingent of Altar Servers, Lectors, EMEs, and ushers would be needed.

 

7. A CCD organized celebration Honoring Mary Around the World will be held August 19th (Wednesday) from 6 to 9 pm and will include a pot luck dinner with multi national flavor.

 

8.  All Saints (Nov. 1st ) - Readings will be for All Saints.  Vestments will be white. Retain any decorations (special flowers) for November 2nd  (All Souls). Fr Mike clarified the two celebrations. All Saints recognizes canonized saints whereas All Souls recognizes all deceased. There are envelopes for both days. All Saints will be a second collection at all weekend Masses and All Souls will be collected at the one Mass November 2nd. Names of deceased loved ones can be written on the envelope and prayed for at the Mass.

 

9.  Remembrance Mass (Nov. 1) - Will need one more candle holder for the Remembrance Mass. Lee and Romeo have accepted the task.  St. Mary’s members will ask their Pastoral Council Wed, Aug 12th, if they want a separate Remembrance Mass. We need to order the candles, the office needs to get invitations to families, and we need to set up a crew to greet and coordinate families when they enter the church. Probably a rehearsal will be needed. The Knights will be requested. Ad hoc chair is Maggie. 

 

10.  All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2nd) - 7:00 pm Mass at St. Martin’s for St Ignatius and St Mary parishes - people bring pictures of deceased loved ones regardless of how long they have been gone. The photo rack needs to be set up and a remembrance book purchased. Various options were discussed. Ad hoc chair is Roxanne. It was decided to purchase three pictures of “Going Home” to be displayed in our churches during November. Maggie will coordinate.

 

11.  Christ the King (Nov. 22nd) - End of Church year - so decor will show drastic change to Advent.  Special flowers.  Still just the two banners from last year?  Four banners too much at St. Mary’s?

At St. Martin’s need to preset banners and mark their places so everyone can still see Fr. Mike at the Altar (last year's view was blocked for some).    Could order some hanging banners besides the two processional banners (about $100 each). The church A&E teams will coordinate. CCD children are part of the procession at St Mary.

 

12. Ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve Service is usually November 25th but no word has as yet been received. There will be a Thanksgiving Eve Mass at St Mary at 7 pm.

 

13. Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26th) - 9:00 am Mass at St. Martin’s.  Bring something to be blessed for family meal - won’t hand out small bread loaves to take home.

 

14. First weekend of Advent (Nov. 28-29) a. Decoration of the Churches should be in contrast with the end of  the Church year. If decorating to be done a little bit each week of Advent, it has to be enough change to be noticed.  If all is done just before Christmas, that is a lot of work all at once.

b. If Advent wreath is to be lit before each Mass, it requires a lector,  Advent prayer, a family to light it, and music.

c. St Ignatius might have a night of family wreath-making as in the past.

d. St. Mary’s needs a new set of Advent candles - Fr. Mike usually orders four sets so as to have an extra set available - have to be careful about the shade of purple matching if having to replace one.  Holy Rosary in Rochester has a religious store. We could put a notice in the bulletin so people could buy their Advent candles there or ask Holy Rosary to come to our Churches to sell the candles.

e. Fr Mike discussed the potential for evening prayer services during Advent. Music, guest speakers, and reconciliation pieces are all possible. Ron added that Holy Hours could also be included. Various time frames were discussed. More discussion will follow at our September meeting

 

15. The Christmas Mass schedule will be the same as last year; Thursday, December 24th, 4 pm at St Martin, 6:30 pm Children's at Holy Trinity, 10 pm at St Martin, and Midnight at St Mary. On Christmas Day, Friday, a 7:30 am at St Martin, 9 am at St Mary, and 11 am at Holy Trinity. Lou will ask Marian Arnoldy about coordinating music between the three churches.

 

16. Fr Mike proposed a Lectio Divina (Special Prayer Group) be started at the St Mary parish house. We'll start the 3rd and 4th Tuesdays of the month. Sep15th and 22nd will be the kick off from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. Lou and Sue will coordinate the house and refreshments.

 

17. Fr Mike proposed “Education through Movies” and “Education through Discussion” gatherings perhaps during the pre Lenten period.

 

18. Maggie asked about initiating a parish newsletter. Fr Mike's experience was that it is not effective plus the DOM wants parish news type items to be distributed via the “Parable” magazine. Ron advanced the idea of establishing a parishioner e-mail listing and news items could be efficiently and quickly passed via that medium. The use of posters was also discussed to get the word out on various programs.

 

19.  DOM EME appointments:  Installation ceremonies will be held October 3rd and 4th at all Masses. If we know of someone we would like to see as an EME, give their name to Fr. Mike and he will ask them in September (once people are back from summer).  Ron Cormier will be designing a training program  and a refresher course for EMEs.  All may attend the training program but will be required to attend the refresher course. A discussion of EME process followed.

 

20. A discussion of the need for Liturgy Committee refreshment people for certain events was held. Each churches liturgy committee members will be on the alert to solve refreshment requirements when they occur. Claire will develop an expanded volunteer baking list. Such a list would help keep the costs of such a program lower than last minute purchases.

 

21. Fr Mike announced the amalgamation of the local Catholic Indonesian population into the St Ignatius Parish. They will have their own Catholic Mass at 2 pm the second and fourth Sundays of the month at Holy Trinity. The first was last Sunday and ~ 100 attended. Dcn Bill and Ron will be sure they are properly set up for each Mass.

 

22. Ron discussed his work to develop Liturgy Planning Sheets for St Ignatius and St Mary celebrations and presented a “straw man.” It is very complete. The goal is to have a copy at each church for all celebrations; not only historical but for future planning as well. For example “Christ the King” sheets would be in the sacristies in October  for everyone to reference before the celebration. This is a huge and valuable undertaking. Fr Mike then discussed discontinuing the purchase of Lector Workbooks for Lectors and to substitute missalettes instead. All agreed. There will be three workbooks purchased but they will be retained in the sacristies.

 

23. Ron is willing to hold GIRM discussions for the members of the committee and other interested parishioners. Most members said they would attend. Liturgy committee members should e-mail Ron as to the best meeting time. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are not available.

 

24. Pastor’s Comments: Thanks to all for your “up front” and “behind the scenes” assistance. I am pleased with the direction of the parishes.

 

25. Our next meeting is September 14th at 6:30 pm at the St Mary parish hall. Fr Mike closed the meeting with a prayer.

 

Respectively submitted, Lee Reublinger, Chair/Secretary

 

Reviewed by the Pastor August 14, 2009.