IX.  Prayer & Worship

Prayer and Worship Goal One:

Our liturgical celebrations will be characterized by full, conscious, and active participation.

Rationale: Our parish mission statement identifies the celebration of the sacraments as essential to our identity as a Catholic parish.  The Eucharist is identified by the Church as the “source and summit of our faith”.  Vatican II called for “full, conscious, and active participation” by everyone present.   Input from the parish in our discernment process for the strategic plan indicated that, as goods our liturgy can be sometimes, there were numerous ways in which it might be improved.  There were many suggestions that were directly incorporated, others which have been merged, a few whose intentions were incorporated by other means.

•  The first proposal addresses issues of coordination and communication so that ultimately all the component ministries of liturgy function in unison.

• The second proposal addresses the training of both existing and new members of the various ministries - some of which normally function fairly well while others have been identified as being in need of improvement.

• The third proposal places the responsibility for almost all of these objectives upon the Liturgy Committee and recognizes that our Committee’s mission is changing.

• The fourth proposal recognizes that the largest single component of liturgy is the congregation itself.  The congregation has a vital role in meaningful liturgy and needs adequate training for that role.  There were a number of parish suggestions for this objective.

• The fifth proposal endeavors to identify resources from the bishops and diocese that are already available to us to accomplish the above objectives so that we do not incur unnecessary labor or costs.

• The sixth proposal simply provides the Liturgy Committee with a working budget to organize the purchase of items used in liturgy through the year.  Currently this seems to be done on a more ‘ad hoc’ basis.

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 1:

Every liturgical ministry in each of the three major language groups will have a volunteer coordinator in place.  (Liturgical Ministry groups include: Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, Altar servers, Ushers/Hospitality, Music/Choirs and Cantors, Art and Environment/ Decorating, Audio-visual, and Sacristan assistants. 

Action Steps: The Liturgy Committee will lead in making the following steps within the first year of the plan:

•  The volunteer coordinators will provide an email address and phone number so that they can receive communications easily.

•  The volunteer coordinators will make a two year commitment to their positions.

•  The volunteer coordinators will commit to reading Liturgy Committee notes and planning sheets.  Liturgy Committee notes are in English only so an effort will be made to find coordinators who are bi-lingual.

•  The volunteer coordinators will be provided a liturgical calendar by the Liturgy Committee each year which includes regular Sunday liturgies as well as all special and multi-cultural liturgies for which they will be responsible for scheduling their ministers.

•  Where appropriate each coordinator will develop a budget for needed resources.

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 2:

An effort will be made to provide every liturgical ministry with the training and resources needed to lift their ministry performance to a higher level, and the liturgy committee will take the lead in helping all ministries understand how the new liturgy affects what they do.  This will be led by the Liturgy Committee in consultation with each volunteer coordinator, and will begin in the first year of the plan, running continuously.

•  The type of training and the resources that will be needed / supplied will vary by the type of ministry.  Impact of the new liturgy will also vary by ministry.

•  The Liturgy Committee will advocate for resources to support these groups from within its own budget.

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 3:

The Liturgy Committee will be reorganized and expand its focus  to undertake  responsibility for meeting these strategic goals.  The Liturgy Committee will begin this effort in the first year of the plan.

Action Steps:

• There will be representatives from all language groups on the committee, attending   the meetings and participating.
• The committee will produce an annual calendar so that scheduling of ministers for special liturgies no longer dominates meeting time.
• In addition to being responsible for the Prayer and Worship strategic goals the committee will focus on discernment and formation for liturgy, will focus on the ART of liturgy as opposed to the mechanics of our multicultural liturgies.

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 4:

The liturgical assembly will be receiving continual formation for full and active participation in the liturgy.  The congregation, as well as all the parish groups involved in prayer and worship, will need to be able to understand the rationale behind the upcoming slight changes in the celebration of the Mass that are being mandated by the Vatican, and implement these changes.  The Liturgy Committee will lead this effort, in coordination with the Lifelong Faith Formation Director beginning with Advent 2010, and will continue throughout the years of the plan.

Action Steps:

• The Lifelong Faith Formation Director will work with the Liturgy Committee on ideas for continual formation and the implementation of the changes in the liturgy.
• Special bulletin inserts will be used to help our parishioners attain a deeper understanding of the Mass, its ritual and coming changes.
• A variety of presentations and forums will be offered to enable us to reach this objective.

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 5:

The Liturgy Committee will work closely with the Archdiocesan Office of Worship and other multilingual parishes in the US that might provide us with helpful materials and guidance regarding how we can most successfully implement the upcoming liturgical changes.  This collaborative effort will be lead by the Liturgy Committee, and will be completed by the start of the second year of the plan. 

Prayer & Worship Goal One, Proposal 6:

St. Camillus will strengthen its program for training and coordinating the ministry of Altar Servers

Action Steps:

• Altar server training and coordination should be improved based on the following recommendations:  provide servers with more opportunities to practice; offer meetings at a convenient time of day/day of week;  make an effort to create some fun social events for the altar servers outside of what they do at their regular meetings.

•  Promote involvement in the Altar Servers Ministry among the Youth Group and make a special effort to retain the older youth servers that are currently active in this ministry.

Prayer and Worship Goal Two:

The parish will have a completed master plan for its worship spaces and some relatively inexpensive elements of that plan will already have been undertaken.

RATIONALE:

Input from parishioners provided at the survey groups and Town Hall meetings has produced numerous suggestions regarding our present worship space and the larger church building.  These suggestions include making our facilities more energy efficient (“green”) and bright, more welcoming, and more adaptable for various styles of worship.

While a homeowner might pick up some tools and tackle a few small projects in a weekend more extensive renovations would require the assistance of a contractor and perhaps an architect.  Renovations of something as large as our church building and as central to our parish as our worship environment require careful study and planning.

In addition,  there are significant safeguards and procedures required by the diocese to which we would need to attend.  Here are some of the tasks we need to seriously consider:

•  Create a master plan for improving our worship space and building envelope, guided by someone with the building expertise as well as liturgical, Catholic sensibilities.

• A master plan for the grounds surrounding the church will be developed.

•  The Liturgy committee with  discern and list  priorities,   expected costs, timetable, and a plan for a parish-wide decision making process.

•  The Liturgy Committee will conduct a  thorough review of the liturgical furnishings and vestments.  Some clearly show their wear   and   need to be replaced.  Some other liturgical items do not match or are not liturgically sound.  These need to be replaced to improve the quality of the liturgical life at St. Camillus church.

Prayer & Worship Goal Two, Proposal 1:

The Liturgy Committee will gather and review the guidelines and requirements issued by the Bishops Conference and the Archdiocese regarding church buildings and their renovations.  The Liturgy Committee will complete this in the first year of the plan, at an estimated cost of $200.

Prayer & Worship Goal Two, Proposal 2:

Since there is no current master plan for our worship spaces - though there have been some consultations in the past- the friars and the Buildings and Grounds Committee will work with an outside consultant on developing proposals for the following:

• Changing the windows to make our worship space brighter.
• Creating a gathering space
• Improving the grounds surrounding the church
• Improving acoustics in the church
• Improving audio-visual capability in our worship space and the campus
• Improving bathrooms
• Creating a cry room and other auxiliary spaces
• Subsequent steps would depend on recommendations and resources.

A committee must be established, that includes some members of the Liturgy Committee and also the Buildings and Grounds Committee.  However, to successfully initiate and carry out the large and complex projects is likely to require a dedicated staff person to spearhead and supervise the effort.  While the guidance of the friars is indispensible in this area, this project must not place a major demand on the pastor or any other friar to act as a Director of Operations – a staff position we do not have at this point.  Likewise, we ought to be careful about putting too heavy a load of responsibilities on the

Liturgy or Buildings and Grounds Committees.  In other words, we won’t be able to achieve the stated goals related to improving and expanding our facilities over the long haul “on the cheap.”  The realistic assessment of our structural and organizational capacity – and the need to provide a new staff position of a Director of Operations – might be one of the key factors that would guarantee success.

Prayer & Worship Goal Two, Proposal 3:

Develop a  five- year vision proposal for improving and expanding our worship space and the larger building envelope of St. Camillus church.  The committee mentioned above will work with the Parish Council and the friars to propose a realistic five- year vision for these spaces.

Prayer & Worship Goal Two, Proposal 4:

Once a larger vision has been established and the rules reviewed, St Camillus will identify which portions of the plan are of a high priority, relatively easy and financially doable.  The Committee will make recommendations to the Parish Council, and they together with the Pastoral Leadership will decide.

Prayer & Worship Goal Two, Proposal 5:

In addition to looking at the larger physical plant for worship the Liturgy Committee will review and begin to update our liturgical furnishings and vesture.  (Vestments, banners, books, hymnals, candlesticks, etc.).  The committee will review what the parish has and plan for replacements and updating as needed.

•  The Liturgy Committee will implement this together with the friars, beginning in the second year of the plan and continuing, with an annual estimated budget of $2,400.

•  Solicitation for donations of specific objects (such as vestments) will be coordinated with the Friars. 

Prayer and Worship Goal Three:

Parishioners of St. Camillus will be offered a variety of ways in which they could increase and deepen their participation in liturgy and enrich their personal lives.

Rationale: Input provided by our parishioners during the strategic planning process  contained some specific suggestions on how we can deepen our individual and communal prayer life.   Our Catholic tradition has extraordinary depth and breadth of prayer and worship in a church or family home.  We can extend to our parishioners this knowledge of this rich tradition with a modicum of effort and expense.

•  Proposal one listed below seeks to identify and purchase pamphlets and small booklets that  would help the interested parishioners to learn about and adapt some forms of prayer and worship.

• Proposal two directs the liturgy committee to invest time and energy in planning a number of diverse forms of communal prayer.

Prayer & Worship Goal Three, Proposal 1:

The Liturgy Committee will make use of bulletin inserts and the website to encourage and inform parishioners of various styles of prayer and available resources.  The Liturgy Committee will undertake this at the beginning of the second year of the plan.  Resources will be selected and used, and more can be added the following year.

Prayer & Worship Goal Three, Proposal 2:

The Liturgy Committee will plan, publicize, and hold a variety of communal prayer events (possibly including Liturgy of the Hours, Taize, Stations of the Cross, Benediction & Adoration, the Rosary, Communal Reconciliation ) beginning in the third year of the plan, and continuing forward.  The Liturgy Committee will undertake this beginning in the third year of the plan, and continuing forward.

Prayer & Worship Goal Three, Proposal 3:

The Liturgy Committee – in collaboration with the friars – will create a plan for facilitiating and increasing our parishioners’ singing at Sunday liturgies in all languages.

• This effort will also include investigation of the relative merits of different ways of providing the text for the hymnals and song we use (books, handouts or projections on large screens).  This will be completed within the next three years.

Prayer & Worship Goal 4:

Parish establishes and supports multiple venues for the whole community including youth to participate creatively in its spiritual development through the use of arts (e.g. poetry, dance, photography, videos). 

Prayer & Worship Goal 4, Proposal 1:

St Camillus will create a strong Communications Ministry that is not exclusively focused on the website.

Rationale: This Committee is discussed in detail in the Community Building chapter.  The Family and Pastoral Care group is willing to work towards establishing such a Committee, and wished to emphasize that web-based communications is not sufficient: displays inside the church should be a part of it as well.

Prayer & Worship Goal 4, Proposal 2:

St. Camillus will establish an Arts Committee and use it to enhance Liturgical celebrations beginning midway through the first year of the plan. 

Action Steps:

• An Arts Committee will be established in the first year of the plan.

• The Committee will coordinate with the Lifelong Faith Formation Director (LFFD), the Liturgy Committee, the liturgical dance team, and art teachers from St. Francis International.

• The Committee will make use of photography, painting and other art forms to celebrate the liturgical seasons, and will organize and direct parish plays during the Mass, particularly during special seasons to help us enter into them more deeply.  The Committee will make an effort to engage youth groups and children from St Francis International.

• The Arts Committee will establish an Arts Contest, with the goal of encouraging the combining of spirituality and the arts in media including poetry, musical talents other than Mass Choir, and musical instruments.  This Arts Contest will take place in the second year of the plan, and will become a tradition if there is sufficient interest.

Prayer & Worship Goal 4, Proposal 3:

St Camillus will strengthen its training for and use of liturgical dance in celebrations.

Rationale: A Liturgical Dance group has existed at St. Camillus for some years.  This group needs to be better supported and better integrated into Parish liturgy.

Action Steps:

• Liturgical dance should consider the following: regular rehearsals, professional choreography, and additional resources. 

• Liturgical dance representatives will engage in discussions with the Liturgy Committee on how the two groups can coordinate more effectively. 

• The Arts Committee will assist the liturgical dance team with coordination.