Welcome
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St. Mary Parish Listening Sessions
November 2021
Welcome- Newcomers: Actively and intentionally welcoming new parishioners will make a difference in helping them to know that they are a part of a caring parish family. (11)
- The Disengaged: There is great sadness by the experience of knowing someone who has left the church. Opportunities to help the alienated return are of prime importance! (15)
- Environment: Acoustics, space, ministries of hospitality, and social activities can all aid efforts of welcoming people into the life of St. Mary Parish. (37)
Love seeks to be given away and so it is no surprise that as parishioners reflected at the Listening Sessions about their lives at St. Mary Parish, there was an eagerness to find ways to welcome more people into the doors of the church. Some of this desire was directed at welcoming newcomers, while additional conversations focused on a great hope to see those return who have left the parish and are sorely missed. Our faith tradition is filled with encouragement to be attentive to extending hospitality. In his encyclical On Fraternity and Social Friendship, Pope Francis writes:
‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Mt 25:35). Jesus could speak those words because he had an open heart, sensitive to the difficulties of others. Saint Paul urges us to ‘rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep’ (Rom 12:15). When our hearts do this, they are capable of identifying with others without worrying about where they…come from. In the process, we come to experience others as our “own flesh” (Is 58:7).
And a little further on in the encyclical he writes:
[The words of Jesus] compel us to recognize Christ himself in each of our abandoned or excluded brothers and sisters (cf. Mt 25:40.45). Faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and “thereby confers infinite dignity” upon all humanity (Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis, 2020).
Indeed, it is the profound combination of faith and love that causes us to want others to know what we know – that Jesus Christ is the source of true joy – and that joining us in active parish life will help them to know Him better, too.
Listed below are the various comments from the Listening Sessions on “welcome.” Some comments will be repeated and appear under multiple themes.- Church to be a place to go to have non-judgment, healing, acceptance and growth
- Bring back all of our loved ones!
- Evangelization by friendship
- Evangelizing ourselves, and evangelizing the young (with events that allow for this)
- Have events to invite neighbors and friends
- Help with transportation for those who need a ride
- Increase our parish
- Intentional outreach to get more involved
- Learn to invite people in – people ask people
- More announcements
- More intimate/social events to bring people together
- More out-reaching, evangelizing
- Need to draw people who have left or walked away over the years. We can’t wait for them to return on their own.
- Outreach to parishioners who have lost their way to be active parishioners.
- Personal invitation
- Personal invitations and activities (NOT JUST IN THE BULLETIN)
- Personal invitations are key! General invitations do not draw people as much. There is a sense of importance, care, joy in personal invitations.
- Talk about the different ministries available; to invite people into the ministries (perhaps at the donut and coffee, tea, milk) after Mass
- Volunteers should be more welcomed and appreciated
- We need a program to build community. Our main mission needs to be to “draw people in.” We need more ways to do this.
- With the family structure changing, still seeing individuals connect to church with a lot of our kids not marrying younger and starting families and not connecting to the church
- Would like to have people come to church because they love God and need community than to go out of fear or guilt.
- Would like to see people flocking to Mass
- Younger parish – friendly parish
- School and parish needs to be inviting
- Be more welcoming to newcomers
- Greeters when you enter the church
- Coffee and donuts after Mass, as a mixer, to meet other parishioners and new members
- Would like to see welcome events for new families
- Coffee and donuts after every Mass
- New family integration and recognition at Mass
- People should not feel like they have to be already “perfect” to go to Mass. We’ve noticed that this is a common sentiment, particularly among young people. Oftentimes when people are invited to Lifeteen or Mass they say they feel pressured.
- Reach out to those who have left the church. Good families have left and perhaps they could be invited back.
- Be more welcoming from the pulpit
- Many year ago, as a new parishioner, the priest visited their house to welcome them. It was much appreciated.
- Lots of potential if you (we) can be inclusive.
- Make church a place people want to come and not obligated to come
- Make sure to be a welcoming
- More inclusive than exclusive – welcoming
- More welcoming
- More welcoming environment. Greet people as they walk in the door.
- Need advancement in welcoming new parishioners
- Not always welcoming feeling.
- Transportation for our elderly. Better access into the church, especially in the winter. For elders, winterize walkways with canvas.
- Variety of activities to welcome families
- We could be more welcoming
- We need to be more inclusive
- We want to reach out to the less active parishioners, spreading the joy that comes from truth.
- Welcome all who come to mass – even non-Catholics
- Welcome and follow-up with new parishioners/RCIAs to keep them connected – and perhaps interaction between groups.
- Welcome people at Mass – for each mass at each door, open the door for them to welcome them in!
- Welcoming 30 years ago.
- We need to be Catholic in everything we do!
- We should be different
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- Welcoming – feel welcomed when you arrive
- Being able to hear the speaking from the pulpit. (The sound from the sanctuary is fine, but not from the ambo.)
- Better acoustics
- Some people are not able to hear Fr. Scott – is there a way to improve the sound system?
- The facilities are in great shape
- The facilities here are great (school/church/grounds/banquet hall)
- To have us, as seniors, listen better, speak LOUDLY and clearly at 8am Mass. Mostly seniors are there older and 35% wear hearing aids, and I suspect another 25% should!
- Digital hymn board
- To have a chapel built
- Choose hymns easier to sing
- It is so nice to be able to come into the church at almost any time of day, to know you can come before the Lord
- Ensure proper mass times during holy day