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Communication Ministry Hopes to Keep Parishioners Connected Through COVID and Beyond
Ever since the onset of COVID-19 last spring, we have all had to find creative ways to stay connected and involved with our families, friends, community, and parish. When Masses went virtual and parish ministries were unable to meet in person, it became clear that our parish needed a way to communicate with parishioners across a variety of platforms, even beyond the pandemic. Parish Business Manager Dan Powers hopes that the formation of a Communication Ministry will help to build a greater sense of community and stewardship.
“What immediately promoted this need was the closure of the church, and needing to find a way to contact our parishioners,” hesays. “Prior to the closure, our main form of communication was through printed materials like the church bulletin, which we would hand out at Mass. We realized we really needed to evolve to a place where we can more easily reach out to parishioners, especially when we can’t come together. As our society continues to use social media as a communicating tool, we need to be a part of it and use it as a way to share the Good News.”
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Through the Communication Ministry, volunteers would help to build St. Theresa’s social media presence by working with ministry leaders to share information, updates, activities, and more.
“We really need people who know how to use the technology, because there is so much information that we need to send out,” Dan says. “Right now, we have a 22- page bulletin that goes out each week, and we’d like to redistribute that information into smaller bites. We’d love to have someone as a communication coordinator, to whom all ministry leaders can reach out. The coordinator would then consolidate and distribute the information.
Dan Powers, Parish Business Manager
“For example, we had to become creative in the ways that we’d reach out to our Religious Education and Youth Ministry kids, and ministry leaders had to adapt and learn it all,” Dan says. “If we had a ministry made up of people who are familiar with this technology as a resource, the individual ministry leaders could then work closely with them. They would be able to pass along what they want to say, and the Communication Ministry could then get that message out. This way, we could share all of the information contained in the bulletin in smaller doses on a daily basis. This would allow it to be at theforefront of our parishioners’ minds, and not overwhelm them with a lot of information all at once.”
The ministry would also incorporate livestreaming into this framework — even in a post-pandemic world, livestreamed Masses would greatly benefit homebound parishioners as well as others who are unable to physically attend Mass.
“We want to continue to build our relationship with our homebound parishioners, and make sure they continue to get the same quality of information as those who are physically present,” Dan says.
The parish is looking for volunteers who are very computer-literate, familiar with social media, and interested in up-and-coming social media trends as well as evolving technology.
“In this time of stewardship, we’re asking those that can give of their time and talent to help the parish to expand and communicate with others,” Dan says.
