Staff Liaison: Carrie Williamson | cwilliamson@stpatlou.org

Volunteer Coordinator: Mary Temple | marykathleentemple@gmail.com

The Welcome Home Ministry's most critical role is to greet and interact with people as they enter the church. We are a welcoming group that is also there to assist and answer questions. We typically reside at the Welcome Desk in the gathering space as you enter the church and assist in the behind the scenes details during the weekend and Holy day masses. We are always looking for motivated, energetic, and welcoming individuals to join our ministry team to serve at one or two masses each month. Training is provided.

We recommend teaming up with a friend or family member so you can do this together.

Volunteer Expectations:

• Arrive about 45 minutes before mass begins.
• Open the Church for mass and assist in closing it down after mass.
• Greet/interact with people as they arrive.
• Stay at or close to the Welcome Desk so anyone with questions can be directed to you.
• Possibly assist Director of Worship, Julie Roth, in counting all those attending mass.
• Stay until 10-15 minutes after mass concludes or until most people have cleared out of the church, whichever comes first.

PART 1: Fill out the form below and work with Mary to schedule your training, or show up to one of our training dates. The training will take about 45 minutes where we will overview the ministry duties and responsibilities, then we ask that you stay for the upcoming mass to walk through how a typical mass goes.

PART 2: Once you have completed the training we recommend assisting at 2-3 weekend masses. When you attend these masses you will work with another member of the Welcome Home Ministry team to continue your training and learning the nuances of the masses.

COMPLETION: After completing both parts of this training, you tell us when you feel ready to take on a mass on your own.

Please note that we never want you to have to do this alone. We encourage you to go through this with a friend or family member so you always have a partner/team to do it with.

The newest addition to our Welcome Home Ministry intentionally tailored for our younger parishioners. While we recommend ages 6+, any age is welcome with the involvement of a parent/guardian.

Our Junior members can assist with greeting before mass and handing out the bulletins after mass. Whatever the parent present at mass deems appropriate that day. For our older Junior members that feel ready to take on more responsibility, they can request training on some of our most asked questions to be able to answer questions from our parishioners and guests.

Similar to how we encourage a team or partnership with our Welcome Home Ministry, for our Junior members we encourage parents to sign up as part of our Welcome Home Ministry and then you can serve together.

Please note that this is not any form of childcare and you may need to be present in the gathering space to watch your child.