Parish network streamlines efforts, saves time

A month ago, when Rev. John Kirwin, pastor of St. John's/St. Ann's Church, wanted to make an addition to the parish bulletin, he went to his office in the parish center and typed his notes into his Apple computer.

Then he printed out a copy and ran upstairs to the church's main office, where the parish secretary would add it to a pile to be typed into her own, incompatible computer -- an ancient model so slow that the staff often opted for a typewriter instead.

Linked in parish

Today, however, Father Kirwin can add to the bulletin, check on the number of students receiving their Confirmation this year, and read petitions for the Prayer of the Faithful written by parishioners -- all without leaving his office.

The change is a result of three new Gateway 2000 computers purchased by the parish and networked together. Father Kirwin; Elizabeth Simcoe, the Christian Formation associate; and Sister Betsy Van Deusen, CSJ, St. John's Center director, each have one. All three computers have fax/modems; the computer in the parish's main office has a laser printer as well.

The new system cost the parish about $8,000, but Father Kirwin sees it as money well spent. He refers to the time-saving computers as "a fourth and fifth person" working for the parish, adding that St. John's/St. Ann's couldn't hire another secretary for $8,000.

Old records, new style

On the day The Evangelist visited, the pastor pulled a stack of tattered journals from a locked filing cabinet: the parish's records of births, deaths and marriages, going back as far as 1837. The lists are arranged by date, not alphabetically, and many of the sacramental journals are written in Latin.

"If you call up and want to know if your great-grandparents were married at St. John's in 1840, we have to go through all of these," he explained. "It's really time-consuming!"

Present-day records pile up, too; the parish averages more births than deaths each year, and numbers about 650 families in addition to the neighborhood population, most of whom are not registered parishioners. About 150 students take part in the religious education program.

Streamlining

When the parish records are entered into the computers -- a process estimated to take about a year -- the staff will be able to simply press a button and call up the records on their screens.

"It will be just a matter of printing it out" for anyone who is interested, Father Kirwin said. "The religious ed programs and records will all be computerized. If Beth Simcoe needs access to somebody's baptismal certificate when they're making their First Communion, she can just call it up on her screen."

Sister Betsy, who keeps track of food, counseling, furniture and other aid given out by St. John's Center, will be able to more easily chart the number of meals families (about 300 per month) served by the program.

More to come

Lectors' and eucharistic ministers' schedules are already computerized and available to the staff. Soon, Father Kirwin hopes that members of the Prayer and Worship committee, who write petitions for each Mass' Prayer of the Faithful, will begin to fax their ideas to the parish.

St. John's/St. Ann's has hired a new business manager, Sister Patricia Davis, RSM, to oversee the process of converting their records to computer. She hopes to "go as far as I can" with updating computer technology in the parish, even exploring the possibility of going on the Internet someday.

"If it would benefit the parishioners, we would probably look at it," Father Kirwin stated.

Time-saver

In light of the decreasing number of priests available in the Diocese, he believes that "every parish has to look into" the use of computers as a time-saver.

"If we have one priest in a parish, I don't have time to look up records and enter records. I think it's a necessity that parishes have this ability," he said. "I don't think it's just a question of a big suburban place. This is something we can't afford not to do."

(07-18-96) [[In-content Ad]]