Timing the EMOHC parade
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,499
    The NO has a full-stop problem. We do stuff for a while then come to a screeching halt. Read. Halt. Preach. Halt.

    (I find your lack of segue disturbing.)

    One of the biggest screeching halts, for the congregation, comes at the beginning of Communion when 45 parishioners in hawaiian shirts and tight skirts gather around the altar to do their um ministry.

    I've been thinking that one way to reduce this out of control thingie is to literally time how long it takes from the priest's Communion to the first Communion of a non-designate. The priest might be shocked by the clericalism of the delay.

    You could time the announcements too.

  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Kathy,

    May I suggest video footage with its own timer?

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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,371
    [mottled purple] Just redefine this as a feature, not a bug. Read, Sacred silence, Preach, Sacred silence, which is more or less what GIRM calls for. Similarly, some people complain that the exchange of peace inhibits their preparation for communion, here is some quiet time they can use. [/mottled purple]
    NB without the distraction of Hawaiian shirts and tight skirts.
    Thanked by 1PaxMelodious
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Hawkins,

    Can the sacred silence be implemented without the parade?
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,371
    CG-Z, That would be preferable. It does depend on what one understands by 'Sacred silence'. For the congregation, the best meditative preparation for communion is the Gregorian Proper chant, IMHO.
    Yet active participation does not preclude the active passivity of silence, stillness and listening: indeed, it demands it. Worshippers are not passive, for instance, when listening to ... the chants and music of the liturgy. These are experiences of silence and stillness, but they are in their own way profoundly active. (JPII ad limina address to Bishops of Wahington, Oregon, ...)(cited by Dr Mahrt, Sacred Music 138.1 p27)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    We did away with all extraordinary eucharistic ministers upon the arrival of our new pastor. We now use the pastor, the associate, and the deacons. We no longer have the half-naked, flip-flop wearing throng around the altar. Since many here are from the north, without intending offense, I will quietly tell you we often called them hairy-legged, SUV driving Yankee women.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw rich_enough
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,032
    Our previous pastor did away with all the EMHCs as well, and the current one has maintained the policy. They haven't been missed, which makes one wonder the need for them in the first place.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    Our previous pastor was advanced in age, barely mobile, had to sit behind the altar to say mass. We needed those extraordinary ministers then because we had no deacons. I can see them in a situation like that, but as I mentioned, now we don't need them.
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