November 14, 2024 – Pastor’s Note

Safety Ministry

For a few years now, I have been working with an Assumption parishioner, John Asmundson, on something we have called the “Safety Ministry”. A brief explainer: churches have had ushers since forever, and ushers were originally very business oriented. Take peoples’ coats (I believe Assumption’s usher room was originally a coat closet), help people find a seat, take up the collection, and generally assist in keeping the Mass orderly. However, as the church focused more on the communal and human elements of the liturgical experience, ushers were sometimes paired with or replaced by hospitality ministers, whose job it was to smile and greet. In many cases, this resulted in non-collection usher responsibilities going to the wayside (do any of our churches still help people find seats?), and these usher/greeter ministers are now rarely relied upon to keep order in the church. At the same time, the types of situations that might disrupt Mass have grown in complexity.

Into the breach steps the safety ministers, who are trained to recognize and address a multitude of situations that might disrupt Mass, from medical emergencies to mental health outbursts to someone intentionally trying to do harm. Ever since we introduced this ministry, I have personally felt much safer at Mass because I know we have specifically designated people there to take control when things get out of control.

This week, John and I met to discuss formalizing this ministry across the county. We are hoping to offer a retraining to all of our hospitality ministers, ushers, and safety ministers sometime in January, based on a clearly outlined division of labor between the three groups. However, for this to be successful, we need volunteers to be in charge of safety ministry at each church location. John will do more extensive training with this group, so that all of our churches can benefit from the peace of mind of having well-trained safety ministers. If you are interested in working with John to organize this ministry at your church, please e-mail me (frmoore@whatcomcatholic.org) to volunteer.

Lynden Hall / Assumption Office Floods

With our extensive rains in the last few weeks, we have experienced two floods in the county. (that I know of!) The first was the basement/hall of the Lynden church. We believe that the seals around the ground-level windows have failed. Thankfully, this resulted in minimal damage to the building and was easy enough to clean up.

Second, however, was the 1920s-era Assumption parish offices (/original rectory). Water came in through the west-side 2^nd and 1^st floor walls, in an area of the building where the plaster was applied directly to the masonry brick, causing significant areas of plaster to disconnect from the brick. It looks like insurance will cover most of the repair (after our $5,000 deductible), but I am sure the Assumption staff would appreciate if you could spare a prayer for them, as those poor folks have been displaced from many of their offices and they are basically working in an active construction zone. I’ll bet they would also accept consolation snacks/food (as would any of your church staffs).

Thanksgiving for my (Grand)Dads

I found this recent SNL sketch about dads pretty funny even while it hit a little close to home. The same weekend it came out, I spent a few hours repairing a clogged and dripping drain under one of the Ferndale rectory sinks. I am sure I could have asked a parishioner to do that work for me, but my absolute fondest memories of my time with my dad (still living) and my mom’s dad (now dead) are doing little home repair projects. I am very thankful that they taught me these skills and confidence growing up, so every now and again I like to flex those muscles to honor their lessons. In a way I did not expect, it was a good November activity, as we use this month to pray (and give thanks) in a special way for the dead.