APRIL 2020
IN THIS ISSUE
Moving through change
It’s been nearly a decade now since the Church ushered in a change that affected every parish and community of faith. Te Revised Roman Missal disrupted the language of worship that defined the experience of generations of Catholics.
Te literal translation of the Missal was not a welcome one for many of the faithful. For me, it took time for anger to melt away (even as I wrote a book about leading your parish through the transition to the new Missal). Every time I heard a presider stumble through the bramble bush of a particularly thick Collect, I winced in pain and petted my anger.
I don’t know now when I stopped thinking “and also with you.” Eventually I stopped noticing. New changes emerged, some with anger and pain of their own. (I live, after all, in Pennsylvania, where the sex abuse scandal was resurrected in detail by a fresh grand jury report 15 years after the Boston scandal that lifted the veil the first time.)
Parish pivot
In my parish, we are fully in the throes of change. Attendance was down even before the Covid-19 pandemic led to Mass cancellations. Collections are down, too, for the first time since I arrived there almost two decades ago. Priorities are being reprioritized and we are trying new things to get parishioners and newcomers to actively engage in and commit to their Catholic identity.
In my professional work as a corporate communicator, I’ve gotten a lot of experience and development in change management. Te basic premise is pretty simple: to help people get through the transition from one experience to another with a minimum amount of disruption.
Tat’s where the changes we are experiencing in the Church—and, by association, our ministry— get tricky. We don’t know what the change is that we are hurtling toward. We are in the midst of transition, but we don’t know to what experience. Te old ways are gone, new ways are emerging but not yet settled. What began as church closings has extended to partnering and merging, and churches as sacramental sites but not communities.
Who knows what the lingering impact of the global pandemic will be—a new wave of virtual worship? NPM is in a similar state of emerging with NPM 2.0. For now, we truly walk by faith.
Another transition
Finally, I’m facing a change of a personal nature. After 18 months, this will be my last issue as editor of Pastoral Music. It’s been a great privilege to serve an organization that shaped me and has brought me some of the greatest experiences and relationships of my life.
I’m not going off the grid, but the truth is I can’t sustain the pace of a demanding magazine alongside a demanding full-time job and a parish commitment. Most importantly, I need to make space for the arrival of grandbabies whom I love with a fervor I’ve never known.
Te very capable editor Dr. Jennifer Kerr Budziak is stepping in as interim editor for the next few issues, while a search to fill the permanent role is underway.
Change keeps coming whether you expect it or not. Expect it, friends.
Kathy Felong Editor
kfelong@npm.org
5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
