Joining the parish council

[Regenhund]

Hey folks,

I was asked to apply for, and then selected to join our parish council. Has anyone served in a body such as this before? Any advice?

Just to give you some background: the parish priest reached the mandatory retirement age about a year ago. We now have a nun for a Pastoral Administrator. Since then we’ve had to cancel Saturday evening mass, share a priest with another aprish to cover the 8:30 mass, and are about to get our 3rd priest inside a year for 11:30 mass. Needless to say, financially the parish is in rough shape.

The old priest had a reputation of being very liberal, and to a certain extent the parish reflects that- however, I believe that there is still a sizable conservative/orthodox population there that feels under represented. It’s ironic that the priests that say mass there have no (name removed by moderator)ut on the day-to-day life of the parish!

 

[dcmac]

Join. My mom did and has enjoyed it very much. A parish council is a good thing when done properly, which includes not usurping power. Of course your parish’s problems make things more interesting if not difficult. Which, is all the more reason to join in.

Your unworthy brother in Christ and by the Grace of God a future priest,

Donnchadh

 

[BrianDay]

Regenhund,

I did a two-year stint at my parish a couple about 4-5 years ago. The experience was…OK. My experiences were that anything new took a long time to implement and no times than not, it would be a rubber stamp for whatever the pastor wanted to do.

If you want to make sure orthodoxy is practiced, make sure that you talk to as many parishioners as possible. To suggest something that is your personal opinion generally gets overlooked. But if you say that you have spokent to xxx number of people and they are telling you yyy, then it gets the other council member’s attention.