Scenes From A Parish Feature

You may be hoping to see some of the cool new holiday movies this week—but you’re probably also watching your budget. So, “FREE” is a great price for thought-provoking entertainment. PBS is debuting two films this week that you’re likely to enjoy, if you’re part of the target audience. Here are reviews and recommendation from ReadTheSpirit.

“SCENES FROM A PARISH,” debuting Dec. 29.

Doubling_frame_in_a_large_woolen_mill,_Lawrence,_Mass,_by_Keystone_View_Company St. Patrick’s Catholic Church is situated in the heart of Lawrence, Mass., an aging industrial town that today is quite simply—“a community that’s a wreck in so many ways,” admits the church’s pastor in the opening scenes of this documentary. (The photo at right is from Lawrence’s heyday as a mill town more than 100 years ago.) The pastor, the Rev. Paul O’Brien, seems remarkably confident during our four-year tour of this blue-collar parish. He admits that he’s received his share of hostile messages on his answering machine. He’s well aware that many parishioners resent, fear and even hate their neighbors—especially “new immigrants.” Older English-speaking parishioners are particularly upset by the introduction of Spanish during Mass to accommodate Latino Catholics. You’ll hear the word “tough” more than once in this film, because Lawrence always has been a very tough town. A century ago, it was the site of the Bread and Roses strike when workers held out against mill owners’ attempts to cut their pay. The children and grandchildren of those laborers find they’ve inherited all sorts of iron-clad assumptions about life—which clash with the culture of the Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants who have been flocking to Lawrence since the 1960s. Why watch a film like this? What’s the spiritual gift here?

Scenes from a Parish 2 The inspirational power slowly grows on us as we get to know these people. About half an hour into the film, we are immersed in a beautiful, candle-lit Christmas Mass with a women’s chorus singing traditional carols. We hear a Hispanic parishioner saying, “The first time I heard them sing like this, I thought: They’re so awesome! … I just kept listening to that beautiful choir. And I kept thinking: What do I have to do to join that choir?” There’s electricity in that moment, because it captures why a newcomer might feel drawn to a congregation for the first time—the mystery that millions of men and women nationwide are contemplating right now. We’re all wondering: What do our thousands of struggling congregations actually mean to men and women these days? Then, we think about Father O’Brien’s explanation of why he works in such a town: “What I was struck by in my first couple of weeks in this parish was how clearly God was speaking to many people here.” We think about this for a moment, then the priest drives home his point by adding, “What a holy place this, therefore, is.” Lawrence is the poorest city in Massachusetts, Father O’Brien tells us, where “people have to make harrowing choices” every day. Yet it’s in this very place that people feel God moving with an awe-inspiring intensity. There is, indeed, a great deal of hope in this tough old town. May it be so in all of our towns, in all of our congregations.

Diane Fausel