Father mentioned it after Mass. Or the parish secretary asked you over tea. Or someone at the Parish Pastoral Council said you were good with computers. You said yes, because you wanted to help, and now you are staring at a half-empty Facebook page, a Canva account you logged into once, and a vague sense that you have signed up for more than you understood.
This piece is for you.
You are not alone. This is one of the most common ways that parish communications actually gets staffed, across England and across the wider Catholic world. A willing volunteer. A well-meaning ask. No real handover. No job description. No sense of how much time this will take, or what authority you have, or who is going to support you.
Before you post anything, please read the rest of this piece. It will save you months of quiet frustration.
The reframe you need first
You have not been asked to run a social media account.
You have been asked to take up a function the Catholic Church has always honoured: the work of communicating what God is doing through this parish. That is a bigger thing than a Facebook page, and it changes how you should approach it.
By baptism, every Christian shares in the mission of the Church. The work you are about to do is a particular expression of that, in this parish, at this time. You are not a volunteer running the church’s Twitter. You are a lay person exercising a real apostolate, for which the parish owes you genuine support.
This is not an inflated description to make you feel important. It is the actual theology the Church teaches. And it matters practically, because it changes what you can reasonably expect from the parish, and what the parish can reasonably expect from you.
Before you post, have three conversations
Three short conversations. Fifteen minutes each. In the order below.
Conversation 1: With the priest.
Ask him, specifically: “What do you want the parish’s communications to feel like? What is it for? Who are we trying to reach?”
Listen to his answer. He may not have thought about it clearly, and he may welcome the chance to name it now. His answer, even if tentative, is the anchor for everything you will do next.
If he is too busy to have this conversation, that is itself useful information. Press gently for fifteen minutes at a time that suits him. A priest who cannot give fifteen minutes to the parish’s communications is a priest you need to approach with low expectations of support.
Conversation 2: With the parish secretary (if she is not you).
Ask her: “What are you already doing for parish communications? What am I likely to duplicate if I am not careful?”
Almost every English parish has a parish secretary who is quietly doing more communications work than anyone has realised. She may have built relationships with suppliers, know the logins, maintain a weekly newsletter, handle the pastoral calls. If you do not ask her, you will trample on her work without meaning to.
Her answer will also tell you what she wants to keep doing, and what she would be happy to hand over to you. Respect her preferences. She has been in the parish longer than you have.
Conversation 3: With one long-serving volunteer.
Pick someone who has been in the parish for at least ten years. Ideally someone who runs a ministry (SVP, choir, youth, catechists, bereavement). Ask: “What do you wish more people understood about your ministry? What would you want shared, if you could choose?”
Her answer is your first content. She has been doing her ministry for years without being asked what she would want communicated. She will almost certainly have something worth sharing, and the asking alone begins a relationship that will matter.
The boundary conversation
Early, while the three conversations above are fresh, have a boundary conversation with the priest. Not in email. In person, over a cup of tea.
Say, specifically:
- “This is what I will take on.” (Name it: the Facebook page, the weekly post on the website, the newsletter, whichever you have agreed.)
- “This is what I will not take on.” (Name the things that are likely to be asked of you but are not your job: hall bookings, finance updates, running the whole newsletter if that is the parish secretary’s, responding to pastoral emergencies.)
- “If people ask me to do things outside this, please will you back me up when I say no?”
A priest who agrees to this and means it is a priest you can work with. A priest who brushes it off or says “don’t worry, we’ll figure it out as we go” is a priest who will let you become the default for every “can you just…” request in the parish. Please do not work for that second priest without knowing what you are in for.
What to actually post
Start small and boring.
Week 1: Mass times. Check they are accurate. Pin them to the top of the Facebook page.
Week 2: A photo from the previous Sunday, with appropriate consents, and a short caption about the upcoming feast day.
Week 3: A notice about the upcoming feast of a saint relevant to your parish or the universal calendar.
Week 4: A short welcome message, inviting newcomers to contact the parish office.
Do not try to be inspirational in the first month. Do not write long reflections. Do not post three times a day. Your job in the first month is to build trust with readers by being reliable, accurate, and warm. Once they trust you, you can do more ambitious things.
A few rules that will save you
Never post an image of a child without explicit consent. Even if the parents seem to be fine with it. Even if the child is your own niece. Parish communications requires written consent for minors.
Never post about a family in crisis without the family’s explicit permission. A bereavement notice goes out when the family has asked for it, in the form they have approved, and not before.
Never respond publicly to a parish controversy without the priest’s approval. If someone posts something angry about the parish on Facebook, do not engage. Take it to the priest. He decides whether the parish responds, and if so, how.
When in doubt, hold the post. A post that does not go out at 9am Tuesday but goes out at 10am Wednesday after a quick chat with the priest is almost always a better post. The pause is a feature, not a failure.
Where to go next
This is the beginning, not the whole thing. True Light Digital has a free Formation library that will help you build from here. In particular:
- The Pillar 1 cornerstone essay (The Parish Communications Champion) explains the full framework of how parish communications actually works. Read it when you have an hour.
- The Role Description template (T1) is the document you can take to the priest to formalise what you have agreed. If he signs it, he has committed to supporting you. Ask for this.
- The Submission Route One-Pager (T5) is what you hand to ministry leads to tell them how to submit content to you. Write one for your parish in your first two weeks.
- The short read “How to Say No to the Fifth Urgent Notice of the Week” (S6) is what you will want in your second month, when the requests start piling up.
A closing thought
What you are taking on matters. The parish will be better for it. You are not alone; whoever asked you should be committed to supporting you. If they are not, you have permission to say so, and to adjust what you take on accordingly.
The work is worth doing well, and doing well starts with three conversations and a boundary, not with a post.
You will be all right. The parish is in good hands.
This piece is part of the Pillar 1 series within the True Light Digital Formation framework. For the full cornerstone essay on which it is based, see truelight.digital/formation/communications-champion/.