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Greeter
Parish greeters extend a
warm welcome to everyone who enters the doors of our beautiful church,
at weekend Masses, at holy day Masses and for special events. When we
gather for Eucharist we are God’s family coming home to God’s house.
How wonderful to be greeted with a smile, with a hug, with a handshake.
Parishioners really enjoy the touch of family that this ministry
provides while visitors to the parish have told us how much they
appreciate a warm greeting.
Saint Ann’s has been
blessed with a marvelous Greeter ministry since 1993! Our extensive
training requirements have not changed: Smile! Shake hands. Extend
a warm welcome.
We would like to begin
extending that welcome to friends and family who come for funeral
liturgies. Visitors from out of town, in particular, are grateful if
someone is available to answer questions about church facilities. Do
you feel called to share a welcoming smile as a part of this marvelous
ministry?
Altar
Servers
Serve
the Lord with gladness!
(Psalm 100)
What
a privilege it is for boys and girls of the parish to be Altar Servers!
Jesus himself said that he had come “to serve” and through their special
ministry these young people are called to serve in many ways.
Their reverence and
prayerful attitude make altar servers role models for the parish
family. Their presence in the sanctuary reflects their willingness to
“serve the Lord with gladness.” The beautiful lines of Psalm 43 seem
especially meaningful for the young people who serve in this ministry:
“I will go in to the altar of God, the God who brings joy to my youth.”
We welcome boys and girls in grades 4 and up who have
received the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist and Reconciliation to
volunteer as altar servers (with their parents’ permission). The parish
will provide training and a manual for new servers.
Adult
Choir
What better way to
praise the Lord than to lift your voice in song? And what a beautiful
time to sing of God’s glory, especially during the Christmas and Easter
seasons!
A
special way to share the gift of song and your talent for music is by
joining the Saint Ann Choir. It’s a wonderful time to become a Steward
of Song.
In
addition, master some of the “beautiful music, memorable melodies and
rich lyrics” from the hymnal. Add your voice to our expanding Sunday
chorus and help our new music director, Peter DeMarco, meet his
ambitious goal of a 60-voice choir.
The
choir rehearses on Thursday evenings from 7 until 8:30 PM. If you have
questions or if you’d like to know more about the choir, see Peter after
Mass or simply come to the next choir rehearsal. The warm welcome you
receive will put a song in your heart!

Contemporary Choir
Sing
to the Lord a new song . Sing to the Lord, bless His name!
(Psalm 96)
The parish’s newest music ministry, the Contemporary Choir
leads the congregation in singing “new songs,” hymns with a more
contemporary feel. Vocalists and instrumentalists, these parish
stewards share their time and talent at Saturday’s 4 o’clock Vigil
Mass.
They also sing Christian contemporary music before Mass and
during the period of meditation after Communion.

Anniversary Celebration
Every year, on the
Sunday after Easter,
Saint Ann’s
honors couples who will celebrate 50, 40, 25 and 10 years of marriage
during the calendar year. This well-loved tradition, begun in 1984, has
become an event that the entire parish anticipates with delight. The
couples renew their vows during the 11 o’clock Mass. Festivities
continue for the honorees and their guests at a small reception in the
Parish Center.
The
Anniversary Celebration honors parishioners who were married in the
requisite years and couples who were married at Saint Ann Church,
even if they no longer live in the parish.
People
who sign on for this ministry are asked to serve as research assistants,
hospitality assistants, catering assistants and set-up specialists. We
also need greeters, corsage and boutonniere pinners, escorts, hosts and
hostesses and people to serve on the rather mundane but vital kitchen
and clean-up crews. Working together we create a marvelous, uplifting
celebration, a tribute to the inspiration of enduring love.
Altar
Society
What a privilege it is to care for the Lord’s house! Honoring God in this very special area of
Stewardship, Altar Society members work to create a house of worship
that is comfortable and pleasing to the senses. There are four distinct
areas of service within the Altar Society.
Flowers
Flowers, the beauty of God’s garden, certainly add to the
beauty of God’s house. The Altar Society’s flower stewards water and
prune the plants and flowers that adorn the sanctuary. The Christmas and
Easter seasons are their busiest time!
Linens
These stewards take care of the altar cloths, tabernacle
cloths, purificators, altar towels, altar server robes and baptismal
robes. (If you look carefully some early morning you might catch an
Altar Society member quietly delivering snowy, freshly pressed linens.)
Members of the Linens Group also change and maintain the
draperies in the side shrines to coordinate with the seasons of the
liturgy.
Cleaning
Working in rotating
teams, this group specializes in cleaning and polishing. You can see the
fruits of their labor in the sanctuary, the choir loft, the sacristy and
the Children’s Chapel, where brass gleams, marble shines and the wood
glows with a soft patina.
Liturgy Committee
Even before you enter the front doors of Saint Ann Church
you notice the work of the parish’s Liturgy Committee. Look for the
colorful bunting that committee members have draped above the doors.
The colors mark the changing seasons of the Church year.
The Liturgy Committee assists with planning and decorating
through all the seasons: Advent, Christmastime, Lent, the Triduum,
Eastertime, Ordinary Time and any special feasts or festivals. They
order and arrange the flowers for Christmas and Easter (maintaining a
subtle balance between the sanctuary’s glorious display and the pastor’s
chronic allergies).
Members
of the Liturgy Committee coordinate the scheduling and presentation of
other seasonal worship services, including Stations of the Cross during
Lent, communal penitential and anointing services and November’s annual
Memorial Mass for the deceased of the parish.

Mighty Mite Minister
Jesus Loves All the Children is the title of
Doris Malota’s beautiful painting in the Children’s Chapel. Through our
Mighty Mite Ministry, which meets in that same room from October
through early May, Saint Ann’s proclaims that we, too, “love all the
children.”
Through
Mighty Mites, adult volunteers provide our young parishioners, ages 3
through Kindergarten, with a liturgical experience designed just for
them. Working in rotating teams, Mighty Mite Ministers welcome the
little ones on Sunday mornings during the 9:30 Mass. Using Seeds,
the Pflaum Gospel Weeklies program, they help nurture the love of God
through a positive church experience.
Every
session opens with the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father and the Hail
Mary and with song. Ministers present the Gospel story of the day in
age-appropriate language and follow up with a related activity. Through
Mighty Mites little ones learn about God on their own level.
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