Outdoor Collections

[Stunmon]

During the 1950s Catholic families would be expected to contribute to the church by way of 'out door collections' which sum of money one of the priests would collect personally. However some families found it hard to afford it. Can anyone remember this happening? Did it do away with the traditional collection plate passed round at mass?

[Bikeman]

I wasn't born at that time, but in the 1960s they were still passing a collection plate round at our church. I remember it being a yellowish metal, shallow dish, lined with some sort of fabric. 

[Lysanderix]

Not being a Catholic ,whom in the 1950s in my part of the City were often viewed as being almost as strange as were members of the Salvation Army, I cannot really comment except to say that most churches passed around a collection plate on a Sunday service. Friends from Northern Ireland told me that the Reverend Ian Paisley passed buckets around his church….which would come out again if the money donated was “ insufficient”,

Thankfully ,we have all grown in wisdom and the troubled denominational past is largely forgotten and we are now living in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

[rover1949]

I was brought up in a Catholic family in the 50s; my recollections are as follows.

1. The traditional cash collection was made after the sermon at Sunday Mass for the parish funds.  Some churches used plates, some had baskets.
2. In the 70s(?) a new system was introduced where a family would pledge a weekly amount which was given in a small envelope.  The church could then reclaim tax relief on these pledges.
3. There was occasionally a second collection for a specific good cause, such as famine relief.  This was often collected as people left church.
4. I've never heard of a priest coming to the house to collect money, maybe this notion was from a different time/place.

[Stunmon]

Father O'Flynn from St.Patricks Church came round to collect the Outdoor Collection. My mother would ask him 'Would you be having a wee dram father?' 'I don't mind if I do Roisin' he would say, and she got the bottle of whiskey down from the shelf. My parents didn't drink and the whiskey was bought specially so that Father could have a wee dram!!! We lived quite near the church and he had quite a few before he got back. Despite that, and the substantial amount of money collected all over Shiregreen, he never got mugged!!! Those were the days!!!!