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| Becoming Friendlier Parishes |
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June 2006 - Visitors Especially Welcome '...some have entertained angels without knowing it." Hebrews 13: 2
"As a person with little spiritual life, my only reason for going to Mass was to accompany a friend who had come to stay for the weekend. The experience was amazing: from the greeting at the door and the Canon's welcome to visitors from a variety of places (which he named), I felt an extraordinary welcome and throughout Mass there was a feeling of being in a family and surrounded by love strong enough to make me feel greatly moved and tearful. I went back alone the next week and the next and the next and every time I felt the same emotions. Shortly afterwards I joined the RCIA group to which I still belong. I feel that the church is my other family." Visitors are more common in all parishes at Christmas and Easter and when baptisms, funerals and marriages are celebrated. Welcome is all the more important at these moments as these stories illustrate:
We have been asked to collect examples of good welcoming practice at baptisms, funerals and marriages. If you have ideas or examples to offer, please let us know. Scripture References for JuneMatthew 7. 12 Proverbs 25. 11 Hebrews 13. 1 & 2 |
Welcoming visitors at the door of the church can change their lives, so this month we are inviting parishes to think more deeply about how they do this. In a parish in North Wales a team of welcomers greets everyone before Mass begins, finding out who the visitors are and where they are from. This information is then passed to the celebrant who uses it to make them feel especially welcome, as this story from that parish illustrates: