MASS BY THE NUMBERS

Years ago my family was heavily involved in the restoration of an old silent movie theater in my hometown. It became the home of a professional company that produced shows for younger audiences and families. The family reupholstered every seat, installed windows, repaired plaster and painted, cleaned, and any other number of odd and dirty jobs to get the theater up and running often spending long hours late into the night.

The day the theater was to open they worked until the last possible moment, went home, showered and changed, and came back and ushered for a great little show called, “Cheaper by the Dozen.” When the show was done the director stood up to offer thanks for all those who played a role in the opening of the theater. Those who played obvious roles in the production, those who gave much money, those who were important people from the city were all given gushing thanks and flowers, but no mention was made of anybody who volunteered to do the actual grimy work of making the building itself useful let alone presentable.

As such things go, the people who were forgotten didn’t mind so much, it was those who love those who were forgotten that were hot under the collar. (Read: Me.)

I suppose that is one reason (as you all well know) I am so opposed to clapping at mass. Those for whom we clap of course do work many hard hours and deserve some recognition. But have you ever stopped to consider how many people it takes to make mass possible at an average size parish on a typical weekend; those whose efforts are not always obvious but whose services are heavily depended upon none-the-less? (We may not notice some of them when they do their job, but we would sure notice when they did not!)

Consider the numbers.

Here are some of the people that you might need for the whole weekend.

SEXTON - A sexton is the person who gets to church earlier than everyone else because he unlocks the place. Of course this role is often undertaken by the priest, sacristan, or janitor so we won’t count it.

SACRISTAN – This is the person who gets everything ready for mass by making sure all the altar appointments are ready and what not. Some places have a sacristan (or two!) for each mass others have only one. For the sake of argument we will count two for a whole weekend.

JANITORS AND ALTAR GUILDS – The church has to be cleaned. Even if there is a cleaning company (rare) there are still some things that need extra care. Let us suppose that you have one janitor and three Ladies who change candles, straighten books, and polish the brass.

LAUNDERER – All the altar linens must be cleaned in a special way. That is, they cannot be simply thrown in the wash. In addition they must also be ironed and in some cases, such as with corporals, heavily starched. Then there are the server’s cassocks and surpluses or albs and such things often done by another team of people. Let us cut the difference and say that there are two people doing everything.

ART & ENVIRONMENT – You might have one person doing this or a whole committee handling this. Then again, it might just be the pastor! They decorate for the high holy days as well as make sure the sanctuary is properly appointed throughout the year. The also keep the plants watered and make sure everything is in keeping with the liturgical season. Let’s say you have a three person committee that does everything from setting up the Christmas trees to having flowers at the Marian shrine in May.

COORDINATORS OF MINISTRIES – Somebody has to keep track of the servers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, and lectors, assign them to the masses and make sure they are showing up. This is a huge logistical job. Most of the parishes I have been at have three different persons doing this so I will use the number three.

LITURGIST OR LITURGY COMMITTEE – Some places have this, others don’t, and many that do are using people already being mentioned so I will not add numbers for them.

MONEY COUNTERS – A delicate topic indeed, but necessary none-the-less. It is best to have at least three people and to have at least three teams of three. But for the sake of argument, we will only count three in total.

Now hear is a list of people that need for every mass on each weekend.

SERVERS – I like to use many, but here I am only allowed three a mass, and since many people only use two, so perhaps three works out to be average.

LECTORS – Let us just say one though many people use two.

EMHC – Here is bone of contention. I know some people will say that they are overused and maybe so, but that is not the point here. To keep mass under an hour here we use about eleven per mass.

MUSICIANS – This is hard to calculate. You might have a choir so let us assume there are 20 people in it. And there might be three more masses at which there is only an instrumentalist and a cantor. Let us average it out to six people per mass.

USHERS & GREETERS – Often these are the same people. How about we only use four for per mass though at this parish we usually have six.

CLERGY – Of course you need a priest and some places there are deacons. Let us count that as two.

GIFT BEARERS – At least two.

So, the total number of people needed to get the parish up and running for a weekend with four masses is:

Those needed only once: 17
Those we multiplied by 4 to cover all the masses: 116
For a grand total of: 133

(And we didn't even get into those who work with the RCIA or, as is in some places, youngsters and the like.)

Your parish may have a great deal more people in these roles or somewhat less. But these are the people I have in mind when I baulk (thanks for the correction in spelling) at singling obvious people out for applause at mass.

These (what Pope Benedict emphasizes as) secondary roles make it possible for the Church to fulfill their primary role of prayer and worship. They are not more involved because they get to “do something”, everybody is doing something and most of the people are doing the most important thing. But it is nice when ALL of the “secondary – though necessary – jobs” are done well. It sure makes life a lot easier and more pleasant.

So for all you unsung behind the scenes people out there: THANK YOU!