I did RCIA as a team member this year. wonderful experience. I think I probably learned more than the candidates. I plan to keep doing it each year. Our parish is very dynamic. Lots of people show up for everything, not just Mass although Mass is often standing room only. We remain in the black. It is possible. I know that there are a lot of parishes struggling.
I did RCIA as a team member this year. wonderful experience
...I used to work on the RCIA team, until I realized what a closed circle of do things our way nor no way bunch they’d become...I committed a horrible crime, the worst thing that a parishioner in a modern suburban church can possibly do in that RCIA setting...I suggested we ought to inject a tiny little bit of Latin into the Mass...I’d have been less an object of terror if I advocated slaying the Pope...
...just for the fun of it, in your next RCIA group, just prior to the Easter Vigil, ask the newbies what they think the Mass is...and if your team’s instruction is anything like my team’s, they will respond with ‘a gathering of worshippers sharing a meal of love and gratitude with Jesus Christ’...at which point you can add, since you know this, that it really is a representation of the Sacrifice of the Spotless Victim at Calvary, except in an unbloody manner, at which the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, under the appearance of bread and wine, are offered by the confecting priest to God for the purpose of remission of our sins...
...after saying this, take note of the looks on their faces, and if they’re like my parish, you might think you’ve just sprouted a second neck or something...ah yes, catechism ain’t what it used to be...
Our’s was until we got a faithful priest, we’ve gone from near bankruptcy to having a 50K cushion in just one year. We have a small parish of 350 families so that is a lot.
He is also starting to make the church a social hub as well as a place of faith.