Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

The Diocese of Portsmouth covers Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Isles and parts of Berkshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire

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LITURGY

Lay Liturgical Leadership - Services in the absence of a priest

Services in the absence of a priest

“More and more frequently, parish communities are gathering in the absence of a priest to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours of the word of God on weekdays, and increasingly even on Sundays. These celebrations are often associated with the distribution of communion, using bread consecrated at a previous Mass.” (Diocesan Guidelines, para 1)

“It is not necessary for the leader to be a commissioned eucharistic minister. Readers may be found to be more suitable as leaders since they are used to speaking in front of the assembly. The leader is assisted by other ministers:

at least by a reader

and a minister of communion (if communion is to be distributed),

and ideally by other ministers such as ministers of music.

It is recommended that none of these ministers should exercise more than one ministry in the course of any individual celebration.” (Diocesan Guidelines, p. 4 para 1 and p.7 para 1)

The diocesan Pastoral Plan Go Out and Bear Fruit asked that these services not be held on Sundays after Easter 2006, in order to help us concentrate on the Centrality of Sunday Mass, a key plank in the plan. It is also hoped that gradually these services will be phased out on weekdays too and replaced by celebrations of the Divine Office and services of the Word. For more information on the whys and wherefores of Communion outside Mass, see the statement on Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest that was published at our diocesan assembly in July 2005.

For details of diocesan training for service in the absence of a priest