What I get from this Pew study on the most important things that people look for in a church seems to me to be in three areas:
Community / family
Learning
Feeling comfortable in worship style
……
So my point is that if we think in categories of what is important to Christians as they practice their faith, we can make changes where improvement is possible. These things DO make a difference.
Fair post. In one of my comments, it is the people that make things happen and I think it is true in many ways. Yet, not all parishes have the same backgrounds – whether they are metropolitan, urban, rural, neighborhood, or the size of their congregation which can range from a few thousand to the hundredths or the nature of the parishioners – country, urbane, academic, et al.
Just want to comment on the headings you gave:
Community / family
Catholics are one big family of God. That does not mean anything if it is not translated tangibly in some ways. Thus there have to be some activities too to facilitate it to happen in the parish.
In many Catholic parishes, this usually does not happen in the church per se (chapel), unless it is a very small neighborhood parish. The smaller the parish, the closer is the relationship generally; the smaller is the place, the more time people would have for each other.
Thus you can celebrate the priest or one of the parishioners’ birthday after the mass where they just carry on next door to the pantry; and the birthday would of course get announced and offered in the mass. So you can imagine such atmosphere.
If the parish is big, in our case, a cathedral, such functions can be done more on personal basis initiated by those individuals concerned. We have what we called church’s groups or movements. In our cathedral, there are about eighty groups in the last count. So people are divided into smaller groups. Yes, there are family activities – potluck, picnic, sport and social events. A priest’s sacerdotal anniversary can be celebrated by a thousand parishioners in a major outlet in the city.
You can’t have functions like this done very regularly on the cathedral due to the enormous logistic. But it is done when needs be. Recently the cathedral held a food fair one morning where all the movements are involved to raise fund for its maintenance. It was so successful, the amount collected from the proceed overshot by nearly twenty percent of the original quarter million estimated.
So yes, a church should have the feature as family and community.
Learning
That too. Some Catholic parishes, especially the bigger ones where they have better resources, are filled with learning activities. In our cathedral for example, we have more than thirty conference rooms in our parish center (located next to the cathedral). It is common that if one comes to the cathedral, the car park is so full you think there is a mass going on, but no, these are the people who attend various gathering like Bible studies, prayer meetings, group meetings, sharing groups, prayer groups, et al. Occasionally seminars and even conferences are being held. They sure get lots of things to learn and hear there.
Feeling comfortable in worship style
In The Catholic church, the **one **worship is the celebration of the Holy Eucharist or the mass. Yes, there are other forms of prayers and prayer gatherings but their worship obligation is the mass.
Sometimes I have the feeling that we are talking of apple and orange, when we talk with Protestant friends regarding church .and worship
Mass is a sacrifice. One can imagine the ancient Jews and their families trooped along to the temple and offer their sacrifices. And when inside the temple, they would proceed to do the ritual until they were done.
The mass is something like that. Thus it is not a time of socializing or telling stories and how long it’s been saying you. Even if it is, it would be kept to the minimum or perhaps with a handshake and a smile. Talking in the church is frowned upon as it disturbed other people who need the silence.
It does not matter whether the celebrant (priest) is a highly talented fiery funny speaker or not. He only performs the Sacrament; and as for the congregation, their worship is fulfilled when they complete the mass presided by the priest.
In all that, yes, people sure can make good contribution to make their parish a much better place for humans to gather together. It always helps when the atmosphere is conducive.
God bless.
