Saturday, November 12, 2016
Staff report
ALLIANCE
Twenty-six men and women from the Diocese of Youngstown will be commissioned as lay leaders of prayer Wednesday during evening prayer at Regina Coeli Parish, 663 Fernwood Blvd.
Monsignor Robert Siffrin, vicar general of the diocese, will be presider.
Leaders of prayer are lay persons commissioned to lead the faithful in acts of worship, which in the past were most often led by the ordained clergy but which also may be led by lay people. Among these services are morning and evening prayer, Liturgy of the Word with or without the distribution of Holy Communion, devotions, the vigil service and rite of committal from the Order of Christian Funerals, and in an emergency, Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest. Leaders of prayer are commissioned not only to lead currently scheduled acts of worship in the parish in the absence of a priest but also to expand the opportunities for communal prayer. They are commissioned for a period of three years for service in their parish under the direction of the pastor.
New lay leaders of prayer are Bernadette Callahan of Corpus Christi Parish in Conneaut; Stanley Conley of Holy Trinity Parish in East Liverpool; Pamela Balzic, Carolyn Semivan and Karen Womer, all of St. Joseph Parish in Austintown; Robert Chismar Jr. of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Youngstown; Debbie McGahagan of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Austintown; Scott Schulick of Our Lady of Mount Carmel/St. Anthony Parish in Youngstown; Regina Oliva of St. Edward Church in Youngstown; Sherry Demich and Terry Socha of St. Joan of Arc Parish in Streetsboro; Barbara Bedford of Regina Coeli Parish; Timothy Spitale and Brandon Wehl of St. Anthony/All Saints Parish in Canton; James Bates Jr., Mary Ann Schuetz and Julie Sutton of St. Michael Parish in Canton; Kenneth Boyce and Cynthia Giltz of St. Barbara Parish in Massillon; Ann Biddle, Andrew Conrad, Frank Greiner III and Laura Schmidt of St. Joseph Parish in Maximo; Miguel Chavez and Mitchum Warren IV of Walsh University in North Canton; and Valerie Seaborn of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Vienna.
The eight-week series was conducted by the Rev. Michael D. Balash, director of the Office of Worship; Dr. Daniel Laginya, director of music at St. Columba Cathedral; and Fran Amer of St. Michael Parish in Canfield.