Fellowship Hour: How it Works and How You Can Help

Alyssa M. & Irene L.

Several years ago, St. Mary’s leadership made the decision to invite entire parish to help provide for the “Fellowship Hour” we all enjoy after the liturgy. Every church has their own method of organizing this continued breaking of bread and fellowship together, and most churches have employed multiple ways of organizing it over time. There is no one right way!

Here are a few of the highlights of how we currently manage this at St. Mary’s:

1. Hosting is Organized Alphabetically by Last Name. Everyone in the parish is asked to host once-a-month based on their last name as follows:
   1. 1st Sunday: A-D (Lead: Cathy D.)
   2. 2nd Sunday: E-K (Lead: Edward H.)
   3. 3rd Sunday: L-O (Leads: Ioana M. & Alyssa M.)
   4. 4th Sunday: P-Z (Lead: Matt & Melanie T.)
   5. 5th Sunday: All Groups (Lead: Irene L.)
2. Hosting Involves Setting-up, Providing Food, and Cleaning. During this once-a-month service, everyone is asked to participate in some way based on their skills, abilities, and finances. We need people to prepare the coffee and tea ahead of time; to bring food to share (potluck!) for what has lately been at least 100+ people; to set-out the food & serving utensils, and to help clean-up by washing dishes, taking trash out, wiping down tables, and sweeping the floor. The church school director coordinates volunteers to provide and serve food downstairs in the church library for the pre-K through 5th graders.
3. Realm Communication. Our parish uses a program called Realm to manage our church directory and intra-church communications. Our clergy add members and regular attenders to the Realm database, and thereafter, each individual should:
   1. download the Realm Connect app on your phone
   2. upload a photo
   3. ensure that your contact info is accurate (address, email, phone)
   4. join groups on topics that interest you, but know that...
   5. ...you will automatically be added to your appropriate Fellowship Hour alphabet group
   6. fix your settings so that you actually get notifications of church communication via email.

If you don’t do these things, you will miss out on vital church information and communication.

1. Alpha Team Leaders. We recently had several people step up to take on the added responsibility of attempting to organize each week’s Fellowship Hour potluck. I say “attempting to organize” because what we have is volunteers leading volunteers…and that only happens effectively when EVERYONE COMMUNICATES with each other. These Team Leads are sending out Realm Inbox messages a week or 2 prior to their duty Sunday asking everyone to commit to help in some way. This is why point No. 3 is critical!

These brave souls helping the rest of us be organized and thus making the task a little easier for all, and who deserve our gratitude, are seen in the list in No. 1, above.