Triduum Planning

[High Peak]

We had our (two) parishes' Lent and Easter planning meeting a couple of weekends ago, and our singers will have the first rehearsal in another couple of weekends. We may have a Baptism, Deo gratias, which means that I can dust off my Litany music. (I haven't sung a Litany of Saints since the Ordination of a friend many years ago.)

I wonder what decisons are made in other parishes re the Old Testament Readings:

• How many?
  Which ones and why?
  Who makes the decision?

For our part, our PP is keen to use all seven (!!) Though I am not so sure. We have been building up since lockdown, so as not to have too great a shock for the people. This year we will have 6 - 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7.

One blessing is that, contrary to last year, we will have four Psalmists/Cantors!!!

[alan29]

We tend to keep things much the same from year to year as much of the sung stuff is specific to those liturgies.
Our PP has been seriously ill and may not be back for HW, so that adds an extra level of possible hiccups "on the night" with visiting priests.
We have 4 OT readings. Luckily we have 5 competent psalmists so no worries there.
The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce (I am still recovering from a Good Friday several years ago when we heard about the actions of someone called Pontius Pilartay.) Mentions of this problem go down like a lead balloon at planning meetings.

[Southern Comfort]

The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce (I am still recovering from a Good Friday several years ago when we heard about the actions of someone called Pontius Pilartay.)

Unbelievably, a number of years ago on Good Friday we heard about the High Priest, Anus. Yes, really. The choir was in stitches.

[Nick Baty]

I will never forget the youngster who proclaimed: "A reading from the Duke of Booterononomy".
Not the vigil. I'll get me coat!

[alan29]

The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce (I am still recovering from a Good Friday several years ago when we heard about the actions of someone called Pontius Pilartay.)

Unbelievably, a number of years ago on Good Friday we heard about the High Priest, Anus. Yes, really. The choir was in stitches.

Did you get to the bottom of why they pronounced it that way?

[High Peak]

The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce (I am still recovering from a Good Friday several years ago when we heard about the actions of someone called Pontius Pilartay.) Mentions of this problem go down like a lead balloon at planning meetings.

The Reader ministry is one area that we also need to brush up on. In truth, not one of the readers, myself included, have ever received any guidance, instruction or training. I suspect that we are noy alone in that.

Our one area of uncertainty so far is that we MAY have a Baptism, which - as I understand things - would affect which Psalm we have after the 7th Old Testament Reading.

We tend to keep things much the same from year to year as much of the sung stuff is specific to those liturgies.

One of my aims over the last few years is to slowly build up and develop the Triduum Liturgies so that we use what's good, approriate and, eventually, familiar.

[Southern Comfort]

The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce. Mentions of this problem go down like a lead balloon at planning meetings.

I once worked in a parish where you couldn't be on the rota for reader or the rota for minister of communion until you had done the training that the PP prescribed. This worked very well. His rationale was that if you couldn't be bothered to be as good as possible then you shouldn't be ministering at all — disrespect to God and to the people whom you're serving. The training was not arduous, in fact less demanding than what was being offered by the diocese at the time (but no longer — most dioceses don't seem to bother anymore).

[Southern Comfort]

The very difficult issue we suffer from is that readers are very reluctant to practice, so when everyone else - cleaners, sacristan. servers, flowers and musicians are at the top of their game ..... readers are often ill-prepared and stumble and mispronounce. Mentions of this problem go down like a lead balloon at planning meetings.

I once worked in a parish where you couldn't be on the rota for reader or the rota for minister of communion until you had done the training that the PP prescribed. This worked very well. His rationale was that if you couldn't be bothered to be as good as possible then you shouldn't be ministering at all — disrespect to God and to the people whom you're serving. The training was not arduous, in fact less demanding than what was being offered by the diocese at the time (but no longer — most dioceses don't seem to bother anymore).

[High Peak]

I once worked in a parish where you couldn't be on the rota for reader or the rota for minister of communion until you had done the training that the PP prescribed. This worked very well. His rationale was that if you couldn't be bothered to be as good as possible then you shouldn't be ministering at all — disrespect to God and to the people whom you're serving. The training was not arduous, in fact less demanding than what was being offered by the diocese at the time (but no longer — most dioceses don't seem to bother anymore).

As it should be!

[High Peak]

How are all your arrrangements going?

In the last week, I have lost one of my Psalmists/Cantors (but there are another three, so we will cope) and my organist for Thursday, which has necessitated some changes.

[alan29]

When you have it all neatly tied up and covid comes along in Holy Week and you lose a psalmist!

[alan29]

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[High Peak]

At the last singers rehearsal on Sunday, I spotted thet we would have been singing "Like the (old?) dear yearns for running streams...." at the Vigil.

[Peter]

At the last singers rehearsal on Sunday, I spotted thet we would have been singing "Like the (old?) dear yearns for running streams...." at the Vigil.

That, like one of SC's recent posts on this thread, is worthy of the "Wickedness of Face Cream" thread viewtopic.php?p=6282#p6282, which sadly hasn't had any entries for a while and could do with some. It reminded me of a time when I was driving with a friend into London and, after we crossed Richmond Bridge, she asked which park was on our left. When I answered "the Old Deer Park" she had visions of senior citizens with Zimmer frames!

[High Peak]

From tonight, our parish will initiate a new liturgical ministry:
The Minister for Ensuring that the readers are actually present and/or have remembered that they are actually reading!!