One of the many reasons I love our new parish:
(Printed in Sunday’s bulletin):
Church Crying Room
People sometimes ask why our church doesn’t have a
crying room. When the church was built, a decision was
made not to include a crying room so as not to segregate
families with babies and young children from the rest of the
congregation at Mass.When the church was renovated as part of Vision 2000,
glass doors were added to the vestibule along with a better
sound system to allow parents with a crying child to
step out into the vestibule until the child was settled, yet
still have a chance to see and hear the Mass. Having young
children in the church with the parents allows families to
be together during the liturgy and gives them the opportunity
to learn how to behave during Mass. We are blessed
to have families with young children in our parish and we
are happy that they come to Mass with their little ones.
While babies may at times make themselves heard at
Mass, they are a sign of the future of our Church and the
blessing of new life that is such a tremendous gift from
God. Let us always be welcoming and patient with these
youngest members of [parish name*].
We LOVED the parish school in Tennessee, but we felt the church could have been more welcoming. We really didn’t feel like we “belonged” until Jack started school. That’s when everything really came together. But, regardless of having children in the parish school, church should be a place we WANT to be, WITH our children. It can be a struggle when they’re young. We still have our challenges, for sure. But knowing that the people surrounding us are understanding and encouraging helps tremendously.
The ritual of the mass may be the same the world over, but all parishes, unfortunately, are not created equal. I think a lot of them can learn from this one.
*Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t think The Internet needs to know our parish name.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Laura // Mar 20, 2009 at 2:29 pm
that is wonderful! being a member of a church (church of jesus christ of latter day saints/lds/mormon) that my whole life has been a ‘family’ church, i have never been able to understand why most churches don’t have ‘family’ services. kudos to your’s for putting this out there!
2 Lauren @ HoboMama.com // Mar 25, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Ohhh…wow.
I got to your blog through a BlogHer link, and then I saw this post, too. I’ve been writing (whining) about this topic a lot on my blog (e.g. http://hobomama.blogspot.com/2009/02/do-not-hinder-them.html) because our church does not at all welcome children in the service.
I’m envious, but graciously so… It’s given me hope that maybe the church culture can change (is changing?). Thank you for posting this!
3 Stephanie // Apr 23, 2012 at 6:23 pm
Susan, I remember reading this the first time you wrote it and I cannot tell you how much I long to belong to a parish like this again. It took me a while to feel at home in our old stomping grounds, but once I did, boy did I! And even when I didn’t know anyone, I still felt like it was “okay” to have kids in mass and attend as a family. I miss that feeling, and am so happy you were blessed with such an amazing parish. I can only pray to find a parish like this one day.
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