Going down to one Mass

[JW]

Sorry SC, I misinterpreted you over the procession/singing issue.

As for the issue, I've always held the view that music per se doesn't turn a queue into a procession, and I speak as someone who was crowd managing at London 2012!

As for Children's Liturgy, I'll just add that, in my view, helping children to 'make God's Word their own' is proper 'education'.

There is excellent guidance herehttp://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/SOS/LOWC.pdf from the Liturgy Office.

In reflections on the Word it's surprising how many children think the answer to any question is "Jesus". And perhaps they're right.

And now I'll shut up.

[Nick Baty]

..what we do is what works for us. Our people prefer to sing when they've received Communion

And I'm sure there are all sorts of pastoral reasons for doing all sorts of things. But where do you stop? I've heard people argue against a sung Gospel Greeting or Sanctus or, worse, in favour of a choral Sanctus. I've known parishes where the assembly only gets to sing when the choir is on holiday or where there are four hymns and no sung acclamations. In each case the argument is "it works for us".

...a procession doesn't need singing

Yes it does or it becomes a queue!

Incidentally, readings and topics are notified to the priest

He'll know those anyway as they're the same readings he's using – or should be!

...if you simply have readings and a shared homily for the children as SC suggests, that is suited to the most academic children only

Quite the reverse. Bernadette Farrell explains this rather well: read the Gospel to the children and then ask them what they hear. All children will hear something and, if we're being academic about it, this is differentiation – exactly what good teachers aim to do.

[Nick Baty]

Yes it does or it becomes a queue!

Sorry, SC beat me to it!

[mcb]

...a procession doesn't need singing

Yes it does or it becomes a queue!

Music, perhaps, but not necessarily singing. Maybe the procession we're most familiar with is the bridal procession at the beginning of a wedding. I have led the music at weddings where this has been accompanied by singing, but organ music is more usual.

A procession is a solemn way of making progress. You could do it in silence, if the occasion called for it. I've walked behind a coffin at a burial service; there was no singing, but it definitely wasn't a queue.

[Nick Baty]

Yes, there are different types of processions. Funeral services tend to generate a respectful procession. Anyone taking part in a bridal procession has only themselves to blame! But communion processions are, so very often, an ungainly huddle.