Liturgy Committee
March 16, 2009

Present: Fr. Paul, Fr. Gerry, Joan Doiron, Pat Dubos, Jane Frogley, Ted Hill, Betty Ann Marsland, Mike McHugh, Dick McKee, Peter Salesses, Eliza Sparks, MaryAnne Brennan

Center space:
A spirited discussion of the arrangement of the space in the Center started off the meeting and took a good deal of the allotted time. There have been a number of comments to various committee members expressing both positive and negative feelings about the continuing of the chairs in the “choir style” seating, with the negative apparently outnumbering the positive, though the point was made that except for chairs directly in front of the altar it is not hugely different from before.

After listing comments regarding comfort, sight lines, projecting of song words on the walls, “back view” of celebrant, etc. it was decided to modify the arrangement somewhat by pushing the altar back a few feet, and trying an angled or slightly curved arrangement of the “back” sections of chairs in upcoming weeks. [Note: The altar was moved back 3 feet almost immediately and some chairs were moved or removed to make room for people to get out of seats/rows with less noticeable disruption. The chairs were angled for Easter Sunday without the loss of seating.]

A couple of additional comments were made regarding the unknowns of what the staffing changes after July 1 would bring in terms of the number and placement of liturgies, and also what the support staffing would look like after that time. The point was made that the 10:15 Mass set up has costs in terms of time/labor that have an impact on the budget.

Lent/Holy Week/Easter

Final plans were noted for processions for Palm Sunday (10:15 AM and 7:00 PM) along with two different tones (and a change in vestments?) for the liturgy.

Holy Thursday and Good Friday services had been discussed at the February meeting and there were no significant changes to be made.

Blessing of the Easter fire to be held with St. Mark’s, preferably in the space between the two buildings or out closer to the road, but not on/near the front steps of either. Sharing readings would be a nice next step, but perhaps not likely this year.

The hour being somewhat late discussion of Giles book was put off til next meeting.

Next meeting, April 27, 2009 (This is not our regular 3rd Monday, due to another event on 4/20)