April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
CHRIST THE KING, ALBANY
Lights, camera, pastor: Video invites Catholics home
The video, roughly three minutes long, shows Father Fitzmaurice casually speaking to the camera about what Christ the King offers at Advent and Christmas, interspersed with scenes from recent Masses.
"Our motto at Christ the King is that all are welcome here," the pastor says in the video, "and we try to live that as best we can. We want to emphasize that, especially during this upcoming season of Advent and Christmas.
"We think of how big Christmas has become throughout the world, and we know that in our secular world, it's taken on some silly connotations. But we know that the basis for the Christmas celebration is the great gift that Jesus is - the Son of God, the incarnation of the God who loves us, coming to our world and being with us."
He goes on to invite viewers to celebrate the season at the parish: "Whether you're coming to church every single week or only at Christmas and Easter, we pray that you can gather together and see this as your home so that you're with family and you're with friends. And Christmas is a great time to come home, isn't it?"
The production was the brainchild of the pastoral council, which has been working on evangelization projects recently. The parish website had been redesigned last year, and the webmaster confirmed that a video was possible. Lector John Heaney, who works as a videographer, offered to help.
"I wrote a script," Father Fitzmaurice said, "but we didn't like the way it looked when I was reading it. That wasn't how we wanted to come across. I wanted to make it look more spontaneous and more from the heart."
In addition to shots of statues, stained-glass windows and other church imagery, Mr. Heaney filmed the choirs singing, clergy and laypeople serving at Mass, and people sitting and standing in pews and socializing over food.
That took the pressure off Father Fitzmaurice: "I hated it when it was just myself" in the video, he said. "I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from parishioners. They said they liked the way I came across - very open and friendly. They liked the different shots of the church."
The video is prominently featured on the homepage of www.ctkparishny.org and on the parish's Facebook page; it was also emailed to parishioners in the parish email database.
Father Fitzmaurice had seen videos on other parish websites, like that of St. Edward the Confessor in Clifton Park. He sees the marketing value in the medium.
"Reaching out traditionally does not work well, and the more we can personally invite people to something we think we have, the more effective it is," he said. "It's more of a personal invitation than a postcard or an ad in the paper."
Advent and Christmas was the perfect season to try it out because people who have fallen away from the Church often start to think about their spirituality again, Father Fitzmaurice said - and they may turn to Google for some guidance.
"It's one of their first resources," he said. "We want to be part of that. [Fallen-away Catholics] see how it's different, maybe, from the Church that they left."
The parish plans on doing more videos in the future; Father Fitzmaurice has already promised parishioners the next one will co-star his black cocker spaniel, Seamus, who's well-known around the community. The videos will likely include parishioners and other staff members, too.
"There's just so many things you can do" with videos, the pastor said. "It opens up all sorts of possibilities."[[In-content Ad]]
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