Is your church open outside mass?

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Is your local parish church open the whole day so you can go and light a candle, pray or just sit and meditate?:gopray:

I ask because our church only opens 20-30 minutes before mass and once it is over it’s locked again. And there is only one mass (6PM) on weekdays. There are probably good reasons for why they do it though.

In South Europe most churches are open “round-the-clock”, and I really wish that could be the case where I live too.
 
magnusbar said:
Is your local parish church open the whole day so you can go and light a candle, pray or just sit and meditate?:gopray:

I ask because our church only opens 20-30 minutes before mass and once it is over it’s locked again. And there is only one mass (6PM) on weekdays. There are probably good reasons for why they do it though.

In South Europe most churches are open “round-the-clock”, and I really wish that could be the case where I live too.
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It depends. Oftentimes our church is locked about 30 minutes before and after Mass, out of precaution because the neighborhood isn’t exactly pristine.

However, we have so many groups and different events that occur through the week that it is often open at other times also. And if anyone wants to enter, they can easily knock on the rectory and ask to be let in to the Church.

It would certainly be nice if it were just open 24/7, but unfortunately it cannot be so because 1) the neighborhood has some shady characters and 2) there aren’t enough parishioners who come at odd hours of the day to keep the Church occupied at least most of the day.
 
Ours is open regular hours from 6 am (before the 6:30 am daily Mass) until about 8 or 9 pm at night. The main doors that open to the busy street are usually locked before and after Mass, but the side door in the parking lot is unlocked. Unfortunately, vandalism is always a possibility here :(.

Another parish near me is also open all day, but they installed motion sensors around the altar area which are tied to an alarm in the rectory, in case any ne’er-do-wells try to cause trouble.
 
The mary chapel is open but not the whole church.

Things tend to get stolen… 🤷
 
My Church is open from about 7:30am to 4:00pm but it has a security motion detector so you can’t go past the first three rows.
 
Our Church used to be open 24/7. Until someone tore the candle money box from the wall, destroyed it to get to the money.

The Church is open when the Parish office is open. Typically, weekdays–8 AM to 4 PM. If anyone wants access to the Church outside of normal office hours, parishioners can get a code for the door lock.

We also have recording video cameras in the Narthex, parking lot, and the two streets leading up to the Church. The two streets because vandals destroyed several of the 3300 cross display in a field for Respect for Life month. (3300 crosses for the approximate number of abortions in the US each day.)
 
My parish is not, though the one in the town center (the soon to be Bournemouth Oratory) is left open until about 7pm so that’s nice to visit fro a few minutes when I’m in town.
 
We don’t have candles 😦

But it is open, the Adoration Chapel, usually locked.
 
Yes, from about 6 AM to 9 PM, and after that, on Friday nights, since we have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament all night, those who have night hours are given a key. Our church, social hall, and offices are in one big complex building, and we have a school, so there is always someone around.

We did have an incident of vandalism a few years back, and they caught the youth responsible, thank goodness.
 
We have quite a few events going on in the church and parish hall through out the week…not exactly sure what time the church stays open til…we have an adoration chapel 24/7…my wife and I go from 7-8pm Thursday…they have a code we have to use to enter…you could access the church from the chapel…and vice versa…but apparently something happened last Saturday evening and now they have put a keypad on the door between church and chapel…as I found out last Thursday evening when I went to fill up my Holy water bottle and couldn’t get back into the chapel…lol…the front door of the church was still open so I had to walk around the church to get back into the chapel…it’s sad…but I guess it’s a sign of the times we live in that churches have to have locks on doors that may bar devout Catholics from spending time in quiet reflection with the Lord just because of those who have no respect for the house of God…
 
Yes to the Cathedral. No to the small rural churches. But someone has a key to those. We can open them with permission from our Priest Vicar General of the Diocese. He runs a pretty tight shirt in a huge Diocese.
 
My church is open during regular office hours, 8:00-4:00, and it’s wonderful. We are an in-town church with a lot of homeless men wondering around. I think the reputation of having monthly and holiday meals for them, and I mean served in the parish hall, not take-out meals, has given us a good reputation among the homeless, and they respect the property as a result. Everyone is also probably aware of the system of monitored security cameras everywhere.
 
Daytime Catholic churches are open as long as there is someone local to hold the keys. I mean rural of course.

The cathedral in Killarney was opened around 8 am and locked at night,

Church of Ireland almost all locked but found a couple I could go into and revisit my early years which are becoming more attractive and appealing the more I come here in their simplicity and quietude,
 
My church is in central London and is open at 7am until about 7pm every day. People are coming and going all the time, saying a quick prayer, lighting a candle, or just looking round or taking a moment out of their busy lives to chill. We are close to the Law courts and lots of lawyers’ offices (chambers), as well as colleges, offices and shops, so it’s good to have a welcoming presence on a busy road.

The downside is that we sometimes get unwanted attention, but that is very rare. The most serious incident was last July when someone overturned a votive candle holder and trashed some flowers and booklets, but apart from that it tend to be people trying to open the money boxes, or annoying people by asking for money. We have CCTV and there is usually someone in the office or sacristry all day.

I understand why churches which are less busy would be closed, insurance premiums would be very high, for a start, but it is sad that there are some churches where I live in South London which I’ve never been in.
 
My church is opened during the day during the week. It’s contrasted by a neighboring one, about 2 miles away, that’s not only locked during the day, but you need to be buzzed into the rectory office.
 
It’s a mixed bag around here. Varies by parish. The one I visit near my house is open pretty much throughout the day, they have a school attached and adoration in the chapel from 2-4 each day (built by St. John Neumann). The church near my girlfriend’s apartment stays open until 2 each day (also founded by St. John Neumann; he made his way around here). Others I know that stay open are the Jesuit parish downtown and the Basilica/National Shrine in the south towns. Usually until 6 or 7. The Dominican nuns I visit have their chapel open from 6:30 AM until 5 PM each day. They, sadly, are not in the greatest part of town. Back when they built the convent it was farmland, now it is inner-city low income. Nobody seems to bother them although they do have plenty of security cameras. Most of the parishes in the city itself tend to open up right before and lock up right after mass. I understand the reason for the security but sometimes it gets annoying. I went to a Friday mass downtown once and was praying the stations afterwards. I was around halfway through when I got a tap on the shoulder and was told “We’re locking the church you need to leave now.” He escorted me out of the building. I was a tad miffed. It was obvious I was praying the stations. Sadly, some of the most historic and beautiful churches in our area are in bad parts of town. Aside from a daily Mass (usually not in the main church) and one Sunday mass they are locked up like Fort Knox. I wanted to visit one of them and I had to call ahead (no problem) and a fellow met me there. He was cordial but it was a bit odd. He literally followed me around the church two steps behind while I was praying and taking pictures and watched me while I was praying my rosary.
 
My church is open during the day during parish office hours, but the parish office is locked and one must be buzzed in. The church is located in a high violent crime area and there have been homicides all around us. Miraculously, nothing has ever been stolen out of the church although we do have a lot of car break-ins during Mass.

Our Cathedral used to be open all day until a mentally ill person went in and desecrated the altar, destroyed the processional crucifix, broke the bottles containing the holy oils, and damaged several antique stained glass windows.
 
8 a.m. - 20 p.m on week days and till 21 p.m. on Sundays. Sometimes 24/7 when there are any night worship services. For example next Saturday at the eve of Pentecost there would be a night prayer for the persecuted Christians of the Near East.
 
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