I work with words all day. Whether writing my own or editing someone else’s, I’m aware of the importance of choosing just the right word.
I think my parish may have missed the boat on this one.
The parish was formed in 2007 and formally instituted in 2008, a merger of two churches in the same zip code but on opposite sides of a busy highway.
I don’t know how the nomenclature works in other merged parishes in our diocese and beyond, but in our parish, they’ve been referenced as “the St. Casimir site” and “the Holy Name site.”
Sites.
They’re churches, not archaeological digs.
The term started out when the churches were listed as “worship sites.”
No. Just no.
“Worship” doesn’t even begin to describe what happens at a Catholic Mass.
Lately, I haven’t seen that word pop up in the bulletin or on the parish website, and I’m thankful that the churches are now referred to as churches (or simply as St. Casimir and Holy Name.)
But reference to the two churches as “sites” has become an unfortunate part of the parish lexicon, as evidenced by the early-morning text message I got from a friend today, checking where the vigil Mass for tomorrow’s feast day will be celebrated.
“SC site tonight, right?”
When I mentioned that I knew she didn’t create the term, but saying “site” bugged me, she agreed, and suggested that we use her fourth-grader’s words: “the daytime church” and “the nighttime church” (referring to the Saturday 5 PM Mass.)
I responded, “He says ‘church.’ I like how he thinks.”
Better then what we’re called — the Central Catholic Cluster. They combined three parishes under one leader. We have separate churches, but it’s the Cluster Parish. Instead of Cluster — you know. Ugh. Could they NOT have picked the word “cluster?”
Yeah, our diocese has some clusters too. That was a BAD idea. In our corner of the diocese, the 2-parish combos have a new name for the parish as a whole, and each church kept its name. There are no local clusters so I don’t know what they do. But honestly–nobody thought of how THAT would sound?!
Because a church is more than a site—or two. It’s a community. 🙂 Good post!