Filled with practical advice based on years of parish experience, this Handbook will help your committee discover how to define its charter and mission in the parish; how to organize itself to meet and work productively; how to find effective members and leaders for the group; how to stay focused on its most important agenda items; and how to deal with its inevitable challenges and occasional disappointments. In addition, the Handbook provides a basic overview of what liturgy is and how it works--an excellent discussion resource for existing committees as well as newer ones still learning their role.
Written in a lively and accessible style, The Liturgy Committee Handbook is an ideal individual or group reading project for liturgy committees, pastors, and pastoral musicians.
"I am very happy that Tom Baker and Frank Ferrone's book is back in print! The revised edition of this helpful book takes into account much of what we have learned as a church over the past several years about liturgy committees and their role in preparing worship. For the liturgy committee that is just getting started, as well as committees that are floundering in their work, The Liturgy Committee Handbook offers practical advice--and some wonderfully humorous anecdotes--on several major issues that no liturgy committee should ignore." - Paul Covino, Associate Chaplain and Director of Liturgy, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts
"Baker and Ferrone have put together a highly readable, even delightful, manual on how to tame that notorious beast, the liturgy committee. They make a great case for its existence (oh, we've all been on committees that never earned that right) and outline strategies for improving its performance and the parish's overall benefit. This is both a pastor-friendly and lay-realist book, serious but never grim in its mission, happily conscious of the comic material inherent in the life of every committee. If liturgy committees can be this fun, people will be fighting for the seats!" - Alice Camille, M.Div., Author of God's Word is Alive and Co-Author of This Sunday's Scripture.
"Breezy, practical, full of common sense and observation, The Liturgy Committee Handbook is eminently useful for liturgy committees whose members should welcome, embrace and use it to the full. But let it be known that the book's usefulness doesn't stop there for it is a rich resource for all groups of any stripe that are looking to achieve more defined and productive meetings. I would give it to any parish group that meets for its sensible insights go across the board." - William J. Bausch, Author, The Total Parish Manual: Everything You Need to Empower Your Faith Community.
"Witty and eminently readable, The Liturgy Committee Handbook puts forward a challenging thesis: namely, that parishes should let experts plan liturgies, and leave to their liturgy committees the work of assessing needs, evaluating, and setting goals. Not everyone will agree with this thesis, but Baker and Ferrone lay the issue on the table with startling clarity." Mark E. Fischer, Associate Professor of Theology, St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, California.
Thomas Baker is Vice President and General Manager of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition and a Permanent Deacon at St. David the King Parish in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.
Frank Ferrone is Professor of Physics at Drexel University in Philadelphia and was formerly the liturgical music director at the university's Newman Center. He is currently on the liturgy team at Our Mother of Good Counsel Parish in suburban Philadelphia.
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