Please join us for a reception in the Community Room after each Sunday Mass. Let's give Fr. Alan [Jurkus] a warm welcome to St. Al’s!
He becomes our pastor in September, after his sabbatical, but he made a point of presiding at Sunday's Masses.
Mass at St. Al's never literally begins with the words "In the name of the Father" etc.. Fr. Alan began with the Cardinal Bernadin "I am Joseph, your brother" anecdote, followed by applause, then he joked he was glad the Gospel reading was on the birth of John the Baptist rather than the beheading, then came the Sign of the Cross.
His homily was full of praise for St. Al's, though without much in specifics. But he did specifically address what he described as our only problem: the debt from the building expansion. Six hundred parish households have pledged about $1.5 million over the next three years. That's less than a fourth of parish households and doesn't pay much more than the monthly payment over that time. Then in 2010 there's about a $2 million balloon payment which will require another debt reduction campaign. He said that when he found this out he said it was crazy.
I agree, but no one was sent to an asylum as a result. In fact, this craziness has been marketed as just the opposite in the debt reduction campaigns.
He did say he disliked having his first contact with us including talk about money. Seems like they all say that, but it never stops them. He promised he wouldn't bring up money as long as we were contributing enough. Seems like they all say that, too.
He also said there was no room for "benchwarmers". The percentage of parishioners at Sunday Mass is about as low as the percentage pledging to the debt reduction campaign, but he said nothing about that. The unspoken message is that they don't care if we show up, but if we do show up we'll be berated for not doing more. If that's the strategy to drive down Mass attendance and other participation, it's been a continuing success.
He concluded with an analogy of a pastorate to a marriage, though he alluded to pastor's renewable six year terms. This got another round of applause, presumably for the marriage analogy, not for the limited terms.
The bulletin from two weeks ago wasn't posted online, but it had an
Excerpt taken from Father Alan's letter to the parish of May 13
The letter must have been a bulletin insert. We were away that weekend and I don't recall receiving it in the mail.
Sometime in late September, I would like to invite each of you to a series of "Town Hall" gatherings. I envision three such meetings. The first, regarding Prayer and Worship, the second, Christian Formation and the Day School, and the third, Finance, Stewardship, and Buildings and Grounds. The purpose of these meetings is to hear your dreams and concerns, your hopes and fears. I have found these gatherings to be invaluable in the past and I trust they will be so now. I hope that you will be able to participate.
When it's about what we think or what we need, we have to go to a bunch of meetings. When it's about money, the parish can arrange to have us visited in our homes. He's not even pastor yet, and already it sounds like things will remain pretty much the same at St. Al's under Fr. Alan.
Sometime in late September, I would like to invite each of you to a series of "Town Hall" gatherings. I envision three such meetings. The first, regarding Prayer and Worship, the second, Christian Formation and the Day School, and the third, Finance, Stewardship, and Buildings and Grounds. The purpose of these meetings is to hear your dreams and concerns, your hopes and fears. I have found these gatherings to be invaluable in the past and I trust they will be so now. I hope that you will be able to participate.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. There must've been a super-secret planning meeting for pastors. This is all eerily familiar. This strategy seems to be part of a larger archdiocesan plan. Our (relatively new) pastor initiated the same thing—he called them "visioning" sessions (Medjugorje anyone?). The process? An endless parade of survey completion, "visioning" sessions (three were scheduled, but one had to be canceled due to lack of interest), and, after all that, "committee" meetings in each area to decide how to implement the "vision."
I've heard it said that the whole thing was driven by the mandate from the archdiocese to improve Mass attendance across the board. The goal? 50% of each parish's census at weekend Masses instead of the present 30% or so. (If I could get, on average, only half my employees to show up for work, I'm not sure I'd consider myself a raging success.)
As it is, this has caused further deep division within the parish. People see the whole process as having been driven by the tiny minority who bothered to show up at the sessions, voted their self-interested agendas ("we'd like a new gym and a new multi-purpose building"), and basically want the Mass turned into a protestant "service."
Judging from the attendance at Mass on the weekends, this vibrant, spirit-filled initiative has driven even more people away from the parish. And the worst part is that the pastor is absolutely clueless; as the ship goes down, he grins like an idiot, exhorts the band to play louder and faster, ignores the water coming up around his ankles, and tells the passengers that everything is going, oh, let's just say "swimmingly!"
Stunning. Makes me wonder just which decimated archdiocesan department thought this exercise would be a brilliant thing to do. Their problem is that they keep using the same, tired, failed model for "listening" that they have for decades. People have actually caught on, and see it for the sham it is.
We'll see if Fr. Alan has something that elaborate in mind. I have been struck at how lay participation, post-Council, has turned out to be this bureaucratic morass. From what I read, one can count on a substantive reply to a letter to the Vatican within 30 days. I've been waiting longer than that to find out how (or if) I can now get copies of minutes of St. Al's Parish Council meetings.
ReplyDeleteIf attendance went down recently, that might merely be parishioners away on summer vacations, or parishioners who take a summer vacation from Sunday Mass.
Try to resist that nautical analogy. When St. Al's moved the presider's chair out to the front row of seating, I successfully resisted saying it was like rearranging the Captain's chair on the Titanic. After a few weeks, it was back by the altar.
I'm hoping these town meetings are at least a bloggable sham.
No question they'll be bloggable; some of the best stuff in comedy was "A show about nothing."
ReplyDeleteSome "visioning" happened at a suburban parish lately. It was a liturgy "vision."
They saw Elmbrook Church and wanted to copy it.
At least give Elmbrook credit that a search of its site for the word "visioning" produces no results.
ReplyDeleteI like the nautical analogy! Barque of Peter and all...
ReplyDeleteThe percentage of parishioners at Sunday Mass is about as low as the percentage pledging to the debt reduction campaign, but he said nothing about that.
ReplyDeleteProbably because if everyone came to church they'd have to build a new one, thus prompting a whole new debt reduction campaign! But seriously, tis a very good point.