Sunday Mass: Behind the Scenes
... Echo Thoren and her cast of thousands
Sunday is not a day of rest for Echo Thoren. SJA’s Sunday Mass coordinator specifically instructs her children not to call her until she has had a couple of hours to decompress at home following the 11 am service. While your focus on Sunday morning may be on getting the family out the door, finding a parking spot, and securing one of the 1000 plastic seats for mass, Echo is responsible for keeping the whole gym in order.Echo Thoren has done just about everything at SJA. She started as a Sunday School teacher, helped coordinate the early years of the nursery, and organized the original Family Masses. About 17 years ago, Father Harvey Egan asked Echo to coordinate the gym masses. She has been there ever since.
Preparation for a Sunday mass actually starts weeks before, as the Liturgy Committee selects a theme and speaker for a given Sunday. Anna Mae Vagle then coordinates the music to match that theme. Volunteers Dorothy Kalinoski and Nancy Wright (9 am and 11 am respectively) call and enlist wine ministers and hosts via the Shared Ministry signup forms. Welcome givers and readers are notified by the same system.
By the Thursday before Mass, Darlene Arbuckle in the Parish Office has the 1800 Sunday bulletins typed and printed. That is when Echo starts to gear up for that Sunday. She makes sure that there is enough communion wine and wafers. She also is in charge of coordinating the shipment of cookies from The Cookie Cart, an organization run by ex-nuns. Coffee and cider needs to be ordered. On Friday evening, the custodial crew sets up the rows of chairs and the altar after King’s Academy School vacates for the weekend.
Saturday morning is an important time for Echo. It is time to look for things that need attending to. Echo is also SJA’s wedding coordinator, so Saturdays sometimes have a dual focus. She leaves nothing to chance during her inspection. Are the bathrooms clean? Is the cider refrigerated? Coffee setup and ready to plug in? Are the cookies delivered and in the proper places? Communion wine? Wafers? Echo also dresses the altar and side tables on Saturday. The particular Saturday I called Echo she was on her way out the door to an Eastern deli on Snelling to buy pita bread for the altar.
Saturday’s solitary organization is replaced by energy and stress on Sunday morning. Fortunately Echo has many willing helpers for Sunday. John Palmer (sometimes in shorts in November!) always arrives at 7:45 to pass out bulletins for any early arrivals. Ron Joki, Dorothy Kalinoski, and Dick Voss are usually around to help for the 9 am service. Cindy White and Nancy Wright are aides for the 11 am mass. Echo also says that many parishioners will stop her each Sunday to ask if she needs additional help that day.
About 25% of volunteers for hosting and wine ministry do not show up. Echo needs to have ready backups at each service and has a few “old reliables” in the wings. There are other details to look out for on Sundays. Are the cookie/drink tables set up? Do the volunteers know what to do, when? Does anyone need handicapped seating, and if so, how best to get them through the crowded gym? Echo even reserves 5 seats in the back for mothers of infants. She also keeps her eyes open for parishioners who cannot take communion at the altar and brings it to them.
We have all seen Echo moving quietly through the aisles, holding up fingers to signify open seats in the crowded gym. What you may not know is that many parishioners will drop their spouse off at the door, park blocks away, and then come to Echo to ask direction to the seat of the dropped off partner. While not part of her “official job description”, it is one of the many functions Echo Thoren performs to make Sunday Mass as orderly as possible.