The following article consists of excerpts from the booklet written by Fr. George F. Smith, O. Carm., regarding the ministry of ushers. I submit it to explain to those parishioners who may be undecided on becoming an usher or volunteering in a ministry that is part of our parish community. I hope it provides an insight into the service of an usher and that you may be inclined to join this ministry and participate in our Parish Community.

(First of three installments)

Along with all other lay ministries in the Church today, the role of ushers at the Eucharistic assembly is being cast in a new light. Father Smith explains how ushers can effectively serve the worshiping assembly and thus prepare their brothers and sister for joyous participation in the sacrament of unity. Our deepening awareness of the need to create and maintain a climate of hospitality within our Eucharistic assemblies has certainly given a new importance to the task of ushers.

Ushers have been around for a long time. In many parishes, the corps of ushers includes some of the most faithful servants of the parish family. The two basic services they render to the congregation have remained constant and little touched by the liturgical changes of the '70's: They show people to their seats and they take up the collection.

While each parish is different and there must be unique solutions to ushering problems on the local scene, there are common problems and universal needs to be addressed and certain broad principles that should strengthen any decisions affecting ushers' ministry.

Ushers in History

The ushers of today have descended from a long line of people who have gone before them. Their ministry is deeply rooted in Scripture and tradition.

The author of the Book of chronicles, a book coming to us from the third century before Christ, pays particular attention to the part played by the "religious orders" of his time, not only the priests and the Levites, but the lesser orders of cantor and doorkeeper. These last, who may have numbered in the hundreds, appeared large in Jerusalem's population at the time and are the forefathers of our ushers today.

They comprised the guild of gatekeepers, who had as their assigned task "the guarding of the threshold of the tent, just as their fathers had guarded the entrance of the encampment of the Lord." Fr. Smith projects their ritual task in the temple back into the age of David, who died six centuries earlier. It was evidently very early in their history that these "ushers" were assigned the take of receiving the offerings of the faithful.

King Josiah (640-609 B.C.), bent on repairing the temple, ordered the high priest Hilkiah to melt down the precious metals that had been donated to the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers had collected from the people. Both Chronicles and Jeremiah testify that the gatekeepers had rooms in the temple where they stayed when not on duty, since "day and night they had to be ready for service."

In the New Testament, we find that the doorkeepers of more ancient times had developed into a paramilitary corps of police at the service of the temple priesthood. When tension ran high among the people who were divided in their attitude toward Jesus, this temple guard was sent to arrest him. More perceptive than their masters, these were won over to Jesus and returned to their masters empty-handed because, they said, "no man ever spoke like that before."

While undoubtedly part of the history of ushering, these temple guards scarcely provide an apt model for today's ushers. One thing an usher is not is some sort of policeman charged with the exercise of repressive authority.

The more immediate ancestors of ushers are to be found in the clerical order of porter (ostiarius, or doorkeeper), instituted in the third century A.D. In those early centuries, it was the duty of porters or ushers to guard the door of the church against any intruders who might disturb the service. They also shared with their modern counterparts responsibility for the maintenance of religious behavior (decorum) during divine worship. By the time the porters' duties came to be stated, they were specified as:
          1.    To ring the bells
          2.    To open the church and the sacristy
          3.    To open the book for the preacher

In 1972, Pope Paul VI formally abolished the order of porter. The important task of ushering has been given over to the laity. They may not ring bells, but the must become in their persons a joyous invitation to worship. Even without keys, they are charged with becoming an "open door" to holy fellowship.

A Ministry to People and Community

Even before the order of porter was eliminated, the General Instruction of the Roman Missal had acknowledged the special ministry of lay ushers at Holy Mass and had opened this ministry to women. The key word here is ministry. This is perhaps the most significant "new" word given to us by the Second Vatican Council.

Ushers are called to provide a very special service in their exercise of a true liturgical ministry. They are servants of the faith-community when it gathers to celebrate the Eucharist. At every Mass, the people are hierarchically assembled. This means that all participants, and particularly those exercising special ministries, must be keenly aware of the ecclesial nature (rituals) of the celebration.

The Church is people gathered in Christ: every usher, therefore, ought to be a 'people person'.

In many parishes, those who gather for Sunday worship may well be strangers to one another. Some may come to Sunday Mass desiring nothing more than to sit quietly in a corner by themselves. Others may think it is an opportunity to be alone with God, coming with neither the desire nor a need for fellowship. On the other hand, there are always lonely people, young and old alike, thirsting for nothing so much as a warm human contact or a word of cheer. An usher needs to see them all as real people with real human needs.

Ushers have to be people-oriented. Strangers need to be put at ease; visitors need to be welcomed; the handicapped need to be assisted and to experience the love of the community.

The ushers' task is to serve the community by helping it to become its best self. this demands of them a charity that is patient and kind with persons who may be difficult, never harsh with those who have small weaknesses, understanding and compassionate in time of genuine need; a charity that never fails, but is always willing to accept people as they are.

First things are always important. As servants of the worshipping community, their place at the entrances of the church normally allows ushers the privilege of making the first official contact with those who gather for the Sunday celebration. Before they see the priest or hear the choir, parishioners come face-to-face with the ushers. An ushers' warm welcome and gentle courtesy can set the whole tone for anything that might happen.

Ushers have the opportunity to make personal contact with individuals. Even where the celebrant is at one door of the church before or after services, he can only greet a few of those who enter or exit, whereas ushers at all doors before and after Mass can meet almost everyone.

A welcome smile, a word of kindness or reassurance on entering the church, a pleasant greeting or a sincere felicitation given when handing our the parish bulletin to departing worshipers--these could combine to become the most significant personal contacts the Church makes with people on the occasion of their Sunday worship.

go to top