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Sacristan
The responsibility of preparing the
necessary items required for each mass falls on Geoffrey, our church
sacristan.
His duties include preparing the
vestments for priest & alter boys and charcoal fire for burning
of incense.
He ensures lightings,
air-conditioning, liturgical readings are in order and stocks of wine
and host adequate.
A convert, Geoffrey was offered the
post of sacristan 3 years ago by the parish priest then, Fr Francis
Lee.
Interestingly, the offer came at a
time when Geoffrey was looking for an opportunity to do church work.
Since then, he performs his duties
with the calm knowledge that he is doing God's will.
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Parish Secretariat
The
administrative work that is needed to run many businesses and companies
today is described as “clerical”. In the Middle
Ages and since the early Church, the work of the clergy or priest
included overseeing the welfare of the Christian people, and over time,
this included more administrative work such as baptismal records and so
forth. Hence, much of the clerical work we think of today was based on
the actual work priests and deacons had to do to run their parishes. To
help the priests focus more on their pastoral work, modern parishes
today cannot do without a secretariat to take care of its
administration.
Today’s
parish secretariat’s role is as diverse and as modern as any
administrative function in an office. There are all the telephone calls
to be managed, as well as a barrage of emails, faxes and personal
visits to the church office for enquiries and requests. These usually
relate to records of baptisms, registration for confirmation and
weddings, maintenance of the death and anointing registers and annual
returns file. Routine work also includes the coordination of activities
around the church building including the control and issue of keys for
meeting rooms. Most of us would also look for the parish secretariat
when we need to book masses to be offered as well as liturgical
ceremonies to be conducted for weddings, funerals and home blessings.
Madam
Maureen Peck joins the Parish Secretariat from an exciting career in
Sports administration where she was part of the national hockey squad.
Daily she handles over 100 calls to the parish office and maintains her
charm throughout all the distractions that file in and out, usually in
the form of enquiries for information regarding church groups and
services. “It’s like running a hotline of
sorts,” she quips, “but that’s where you
get to know a whole lot of people!” She works 6 days
including weekends, and loves to get her Monday off but there is always
something which needs to get done. Energetic even at 60 years, she
attributes her serenity to her favourite saints, St Gerard Majellan and
St Anthony of Padua, whom she often recommends to others in need as
intercessors.
“The
job here is more than just admin work. People turn up for all sort of
help, and after a while you can see who’s sincere,”
Madam Peck notes, “There are just some things people
don’t like to do, like filling up forms or calling a number,
so it’s sometimes hard to tell them that’s what
they have to do.”
In
addition to coordinating with the parish Media Team on the production
of the weekly bulletins, she also attends to any other duty assigned by
the priests of the parish. “It’s a big
job!” she adds.
She
keeps her perspective by getting as much done as she can; knowing that
more can get done when people with professional experience can come
forth to volunteer as well. Her two grandchildren live with their
family in Melbourne, Australia, while at home she has her pet dog of 10
years called, Elias. |
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Morgan Tan joined the Church of Risen
Christ as a full-time staff around April 2008. He came to know about
the job vacancy from the church bulletin.
His duties are maintenance of the
lightings, doors, locks, etc pertaining to the church building and the
church compound as well as plumbing. He also locks up the church gates
at night at 10.30pm. In fact he says that he is the last person to
leave the church at night.
Morgan lives near the church and
usually cycles to the church.
He says that he likes to spend his
leisure time at home with his wife and likes listening to music.
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