From video to the street: We bring love,
concern and the Eucharist
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff
This is a youth ministry with no
time to socialize. But where else can students as young as 12 go to church and
get hands-on experience in all aspects of video production? The moment the
weekly 9:30 a.m. Mass starts, its all concentration -- on the computers,
on the graphics, on what the camera is seeing. And on keeping a cool head when
things go wrong.
Using professional, if antiquated, equipment donated by a local TV
station, this is the Holy Family video ministry -- 48 people, half of them
students, make up a production crew whose work is broadcast three times a week
on three local cable channels -- to the shut-ins, elderly and sick.
Sometimes the headset goes out, said Mary Overell, 14.
The video director is screaming. You stay cool and try to get the right
titles on the screen -- you cant hear him. A crew member since she
was 12, Overell prefers the computer graphics to camera -- but shes done
that, too. Just dont pan too fast, said the high school
junior.
This is a ministry like few others -- it has career potential.
Matthew Bell, 15, who can pretty much do everything on the team,
said the exposure has attracted him to a possible future in the computer part
of production. He intends to keep working on it for as long as he is in the
area. Meanwhile, he has a regular stint every second week. Overell, who was
considering acting, now is attracted to the production side of
entertainment.
Do the priests keep their homilies short enough at the 9:30 a.m.
Mass so the hour tape doesnt run over? No, admits Overell,
weve had some problems with that.
There are deliberately no on-screen or off-screen appeals for
money --this is a gift from the parish, said the pastor, Msgr.
Clement Connolly.
It isnt just the video cameras that focus on Holy
Familys elderly.
Mary Ternan, parish staff gerontologist, puts in 30 hours a week
with her team of more than 100 volunteers who work with 350 seniors.
Were bringing love, concern, understanding and the
Eucharist, said Ternan, whose volunteers also provide the elderly with
transportation to doctors appointments and the grocery store.
Some of the outreach is social service work, said Ternan, such as
plugging seniors into the local senior care programs. But this is
spiritual outreach, and we have to be careful and say we cant do anymore,
for example, when assessments need to be made for placement in a nursing
home.
Ternan said seniors welcome the volunteer visitors and love the
video Mass. If they have complaints about the televised Mass, its only
about the sound system. Sometimes they call in and say they cant hear
whats being said.
National Catholic Reporter, December 25,
1998
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