NKCC

"The Liturgy Committee Handbook", written and published by Thomas Baker and Frank Ferrone (2007): While liturgy committees may have started because of the need to understand and implement all those vast liturgical changes of the 1960s and 1970s, right now the need is different: our church needs a new generation with a sense of adult responsibility for every aspect of the church’s work. In the past, a liturgy committee might have been seen as a helpful but optional adjunct to the clergy or parish staff; now, however, it is a necessary source of future leaders and ministers. Without a strong base of lay leaders in place who understand liturgy and are comfortable with leading, planning, and evaluating it, our parishes will become sadder places, as the number of priests continues to fall and new forms of leadership fail to take their place. The future is very much in the hands of laypeople who believe that their work will help keep our liturgical traditions alive and powerful. Liturgy committees are one place where people like that can get their training, their experience, and their support. And of course, strong liturgy committees also have benefits in the here and now: they help each parish find its unique way of making the prayer of the church its own.