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Members throughout the world are actively encouraged to start up local
Chapters of the Confraternity in their parishes. We have been asked
to provide procedures for establishing a Local Chapter, and following are
some suggestions on how to proceed. Obviously, much depends on the
response and enthusiasm of other parishioners, and particularly of your
Parish Priest. These suggestions may be modified according to the
particular circumstances.
1 Discuss the Confraternity with your Parish Priest,
and determine the extent of his cooperation.
2 Preferably with the help of the Pastor, talk to people about the Breviary, gradually introducing them to the
idea that they too can be a part of the Church's daily prayer life.
3 Introduce them to the Confraternity, its aims and practices.
4 Find a place where you can have Compline in common on a more or less
regular basis - can be weekly, or whatever, depending on the
circumstances of members.
5 Once Compline is being recited in a manner that is dignified and
edifying (in other words, pleasing to man as well as pleasing to God!),
invite more people.
6 Invite those at Compline to a local Chapter meeting of the
Confraternity (this would be your first Chapter). This should be held
before Compline on one of the appointed days.
7 At Chapter, discuss the Confraternity, go through a copy of the
Constitutions, and hand out application forms. Schedule a second
Chapter.
8 At the second Chapter, discuss ways and means of reciting the Office
in common on a more regular basis, for example, scheduling Prime or one
of the other Hours.
9 Gradually start to get more organized by appointing a District Dean
and Secretary, advertising the scheduled Divine Office and Chapter
meetings
10 In the course of all the above, try and involve your Parish
Priest; ask if he can help by making
announcements from the pulpit, allowing you to advertise Divine Service
and Chapter
Meetings in the parish bulletin. Ask if he would be willing to
celebrate Solemn Vespers on the greater Feastdays and Sundays.
You
should not worry too much about the choral or linguistic aspects of the
Office at first. The Confraternity's aim is to make the Divine
Office easily accessible to the laity, and with this in mind, the use of
the English translation on this website is permitted even in public
recitation. In other words, if you start out by having Compline
not sung in Latin but recited in English, this is perfectly acceptable. The
dignity of the Office is paramount, and we encourage members to recite
it well in English rather than to sing it badly in Latin.
In order to check the location of other members, link
to our Membership
page. |