Hanging out with other priests playing board games, all of last week, was an excellent vacation, but hanging out with other priests is also dangerous because I pick up… ideas. In this case, one of my priest friends is preparing for a possible transition by listing some of his current responsibilities that he would prefer not to hand over to a potential successor, in the hope of finding a volunteer to take over these responsibilities instead.
This will often happen to pastors – it is easier to do something oneself than to find and train a volunteer, then it becomes a habit, then you become overburdened. Anyway, I plan to list these things as they come to mind over the coming months. Two come to mind today.
Altar Server Training
Right now, we do not train our altar servers. We trained a setback in summer 2021 and have essentially asked them to pass their knowledge down to new generations of servers as they begin to serve. There are benefits to this approach – namely, that our older servers feel more responsibility for our younger servers. However, sometimes things get miscommunicated, it is hard to introduce changes, and I end up being the one responsible for correcting or improving our altar serving program. In an ideal world, we would have an altar server coordinator who was responsible for an annual or semi-annual training, who would check-in regularly with our servers at different Masses, and who would create, update, and implement an altar server manual. It would also be nice for that manual to have a graduated system where servers are introduced to and allowed to perform more advanced tasks as they climb the serving ranks.
Sacristy / Gathering Space Policing
Lots of stuff ends up being put on the tables and bulletin boards of our Gathering Space, or the counters and shelves of our sacristy. In my experience, few people besides myself feel the requisite authority to fight the clutter, throw out the extraneous/unnecessary/expired, and keep our spaces clean and organized. It would be nice to delegate ownership of our Gathering Space and sacristies to someone, so that these spaces remain well-organized without my oversight.
Fr. Moore 
[In the persona of Christ,] “He has done all things well.” The Gospel of Saint Mark, 7:31-37.
This line came, as I turn again to the Very Reverend Moore’s pastor notes and message in the weekly bulletin. I can always find the Catholic Church roots and Christ’s love — from chanting of the Mass to importance of bequests — in this priest’s words. The pastor notes and bulletin messages are lovely and thoughtful theological footnotes that help me understand the faith.