No encouragement for Liturgical Ministers

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CyrilSebastian

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Cousin James has sometimes been attending Mass at a large Roman Catholic church which had a smaller Catholic church merge with it over a year ago. The smaller church closed and is not used whatsoever.
James has observed:
There has not been one extraordinary minister of Holy Communion from the second church helping at Mass.
There has not been one reader from the second church helping at Mass.
There has not been one altar server from the second church helping at Mass.
There has not been one usher from the second church helping at Mass.
The Sunday collection has remained the same even after the merger occurred.
Were not the Liturgical Ministers from the second church encouraged to participate?
 
Sounds to me like the entire second parish opted not to participate.
 
They certainly should have been. Couple of thoughts: the first round of parish mergers in our area were handled such that smaller parishes were merged into larger parishes and the name of the larger parish was kept, resulting in a sense of “winner” and “loser.” (In later merger rounds, while one existing building was kept, the merged parish was given a new name.) People from a parish whose identity was lost could easily be de-motivated from ministries if the merger was poorly handled.

In the case of ethnic parishes being merged (such parishes so common, or were, here in the Northeast) similar merger issues were amplified by traditional frictions. Another de-motivator from participation in ministries.
 
The second parish probably closed due to lack of attendance/collections; if this is the case, is it surprising than nobody has stepped up in the new parish?
 
I live in Massachusetts also. At St. John’s Church in Worcester a mainstream predominantly Irish/Italian parish(which is common in the Northeast had two smaller parishes merge with them). St. John’s welcomed both a closed Lithuanian parish and a closed Filipino parish. The pastor at St. John’s continues to celebrate the cultural diversity of all the parishioners by retaining both a Filipino and Lithuanian choir. They can be heard at the English Saturday vigil Masses. Father has kept some of the statues and other artworks from their previous parishes so they can maintain their identity. There have dinners sponsored by the Filipino parishioners so they can thank the welcoming congregation and all can enjoy great ethnic food. I am glad that they were not eclipsed when they had to merge.

I would think it would take some courage to become a Liturgical Minister in a new parish where you don’t know many people and you might have a language barrier. Sometimes in order to recruit new Liturgical Ministers it is best to invite them personally to join.
 
1ke said:
Uh, how would we know?

I suggest you ask the pastor.
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For the situation described by the OP, this is the only possible response. Anything else would be speculation. There are several possible explanations for what James observes, and the pastor is in the best position to shed light on the matter.
 
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