62/365 Altar Guild

We sit in the church looking around trying to figure out what Easter will look like. Fiona is there, for the first time, although she should be the one most in charge of flowers since she works for a florist. Hildegard, Lynn, and Sr. Kinnera were there, too, of course, and we sat quietly, envisioning and remembering.

After discussion on wreaths (what type, how many, how big), ribbons (what type, how long, how much), and banners (which is for another post), conversation drifted to a topic that I often puzzle over: why don't we have organizations at our church to do things that need to be done?

We were specifically speaking of an altar guild or society in this case, but I've asked myself and Astrid this on many occasion about various things--a functioning women's club, a funeral hospitality committee (which we do have now), and so forth. Altar guild, however, is needed. The sacristies are untidy (correction: Fr. Miguel's sacristy is fine. My sacristy is untidy, quelle surprise). The candles, candlestands, and who knows how many other tasks are done solely by Hildegard because the quirky church mice who pretend to get things done are so clueless about what looks nice and what is the right thing to do that she has to do it all over after they leave. Linens are washed by two older ladies in the church--Ethel is fine, but Bernie is much older and more than a tad out of it. She has to take things home on the bus, on top of that, so we really should have someone else in place.

We know this. We know that I cannot alone take care of the church any more than Hildegard can (actually she can better since she's there every day to begin with, but she has a job...but even the two of us would quickly and permanently burn out on this stuff). I feel like counting on Fiona for plants during ordinary time is plenty; Lynn is usually not useful. Jack of course picks up a lot of the slack, and there's always Sal to screw things up here and there.

We need an altar guild. We need a group of people who know what their one task is and can complete it. Linens, candles, brass. Flowers, plants, banners, albs. Holy water fonts, vestibules, sacristies. Luckily we have a priest who isn't so clueless that we need to lay everything out for him. Actually, thank God for that or else we would have drowned a long time ago. But we sat there thinking of who could we ask, how could we have a meeting, when, what would we say, who would be in charge. We kept coming back to the fact that none of this is hard, splitting it up and getting it done....and why has it gotten to this point, again?

Because, I pointed out, until 3 years ago there was only one person doing all of it, doing it pretty badly, and nobody cared that it got done or didn't get done.

It comes back to my theory of abusive relationships. I've talked about this before in regards to politics (local and national) but I think it's true here too. We have learned helplessness. Why should we try to do anything because it'll only get undone? Why should we try to clean that because we've been told time and again that it isn't our place? Why bother having an opinion because it will be shot down?

It takes time to rebuild that. And it will take personal invitation.

After Easter.