Mass reopenings at different parishes

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Tis_Bearself

Patron
So I’m perusing the parishes in the areas that are opening up in order to find Masses that will be happening at times I can get to them.

Parish A is not having daily Masses at all because they have a lot of funerals and weddings to catch up on and in addition, sanitizing the church properly is going to be a big job. (Their priest is also very elderly, which may be a factor in their consideration.)

Parish B is having some daily Masses but the pastor made a 15-minute instructional video covering everything you’ll now have to do differently in church.

Parish C is also going to be having some daily Masses but the pastor wrote a two-page single spaced letter about everything you’ll now have to do differently in church.

Parish D is a Polish-American parish. Their announcement says, pretty much in its entirety, We are Happy to welcome you back to Mass! Daily Mass (regular schedule) starts again on (date), Sunday Mass starts again on (date), you must wear a mask at all times in the church unless you’re a toddler, and the bathrooms will be locked so please don’t expect to use them. That’s it.

I know parishes have different needs, but I find the different approaches to be interesting.
 
Last edited:
We’re pretty close to parish B’s approach. We’re having a limited schedule on the weekends (Saturday vigil+three Sunday Masses, instead of our usual five on Sunday). We’ve published some very sparse guidelines and put up a video explaining things, figuring that the fewer moving parts for people to try to understand, the more compliant they will be. Every other pew is taped off, and there are marks 6 feet apart inside the open pews, so as to maintain distance. Households may sit together, but people from different households are to sit apart according to the marks. We’ve capped attendance at 200 per Mass, about 30% of our usual capacity. The first weekend back, we had less than 100 at each Mass, and about 50 at our Spanish Mass (it normally has 700+ and is standing room only). Communion is offered outside for anyone who comes but doesn’t feel comfortable going into the Church. Masses are still livestreamed; we have a daily Mass in the rectory chapel and one in the Church itself, with the former livestreamed and the latter not.

So far it’s worked very well. People have been very cooperative, apart from the odd soul here and there who thinks that we’re supposed to be “back to normal,” how we were before mid-March, not understanding that 1) we never said that, and 2) we won’t be back there for quite a while. We’re gradually stepping back up to that.

-Fr ACEGC
 
It’s a brave new world here! I’m fortunate in having a small congregation and so it’s business as usual for weekday mass (as of today) and only one extra Sunday mass. The challenge of course will be getting people to spread themselves over the two masses since social distancing rules mean we can’t fit as many in the church as we normally would even though we’d comfortably fit within the 100 total limit.

For city parishes it’s the opposite problem - plenty of room for 100 people to spread themselves out in churches which seat easily five times that number but the problem is, as one priest I know put it, how to have Sunday mass for 1500 people when you’re limited to 100 per mass. Some parishes have been operation online booking systems, other ask people to pre-register with the office, others are taking a free for all approach, while others still aren’t resuming Sunday mass until the limit is lifted. I have my doubts as to how successful some of these approaches will be but, that said, I’m not saying my idea is necessarily any better! Ultimately, it’s all just bold experiments in a mad and crazy world!
 
Our bishop put out the guidelines we must follow. We can only have up to 25% capacity and to start we will only have Sunday mass. Daily masses remain private masses.

And we have a whole list of criteria, and had to go to training and appoint a compliance manager.

I just made up our seating charts last night. I did a survey for responses of who will be attending and we are doing “A” and “B” week attendance to remain under the 25% level. We are a small parish so it’s possible to do it this way. We have a small margin for accommodating “walk ins”.

Another parish in the area is first come first served until they hit the 25% mark thru a sign in sheet then no one else can come in.

The dispensation remains in place and we are live streaming.
 
Last edited:
Our Archdiocese released some guidelines. 25% occupancy, clean between Masses, participants must wear masks. Social distancing etc…

In our parish, we are having an outdoor daily Mass in the parking lot. Sunday Masses are alternating indoor and out door. 7:30am in indoor, 9:30am outdoor, 11:30 am indoor, etc… This allows volunteers to clean and sanitize the church.

Indoor Masses are by online registration. Outdoor Mass is not restricted in attendance, but online registration is encourage, so they know approx how many hosts to consecrate.

The dispensation remains as well.
 
Our bishop has specifically stated no outdoor or parking lot masses.
 
In my diocese churches are allowed to have indoor Masses at a maximum of 50% capacity with social distancing.

In my parish we added a second Latin Mass on Sundays to accommodate everyone who wants to go. Every other pew is taped off and one of our ushers makes a seating chart for each Mass and we have assigned seating. Families may sit together and we may also sit with friends if we specify that when we sign up.

We are using Signup Genius for people to register for Sunday Mass. People are also welcome to remain outside and listen to Mass over the speaker system and come in to receive Communion.

The church is sanitized after each Mass and we do allow access to the restrooms. Masks are recommended but not required.

Daily Masses have resumed as normal.

Confessions are heard outside or in the nave of the church.
 
I side with the Archbishop Kikuchi on this coronavirus issue. Despite that we get fewer than 50 new cases every day in the country, and the government recently lifted the state of emergency, I’m especially thankful that His Most Reverend did not immediately resume all the Masses, but instead took a more cautious move. Even though I really miss going to Mass, I would choose not to for the sake of myself and my brothers and sisters in the Church.
https://tokyo.catholic.jp/english/
 
1ke said:
Our bishop has specifically stated no outdoor or parking lot masses.
Click to expand...
Ah, ‘parking lot’ Masses were permitted throughout our lockdown. Attendees had to remain in their cars. As of May 19, we were allowed to have outdoor Masses and indoor under the conditions I outlined above.

Attached is a picture of a parish ( not mine) that had an outdoor Mass on the school football field

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
Our diocese is having a meeting next Wednesday to discuss this. The info we have so far is that, although the province will allow groups of 50, by limiting seating to every third pew, our parish will not be able to accommodate that many, unless we get several large family groups. We have a lot of lone individuals who would normally come in and share pews but that won’t be allowed.

No hymnals allowed and pews must be disinfected after each Mass. Bathroom must be disinfected after each use, so will probably be unavailable since that’s simply not practical. That means a few parishioners won’t be able to attend at all. Whether we’ll be able to receive Communion is still up in the air.
 
We are doing Masses with reservations. Vigil on Sat. evening, two on Sundays, two each on Tues. through Thurs. One of the Sunday and one each of the weekday Masses will be videoed, as well as the video-only ones on Monday and Friday.

They will allow 150 in the weekend Masses, and 25 in the weekday ones in the chapel. We have to get online early and make a reservation and have it confirmed and bring it with us. Absolutely no walk-ins. It will be different. No missellets, as they would have to be sanitized after every use, and no receiving the host till we are ready to leave. I think that is how they said it would be. In any case, it will be different.

The narthex is available on weekdays after 9:30 for private prayer.

I got one of the first 25, on the Tuesday. Probably won’t go very often at first, but I wanted to go, we have been waiting so long. After that, I’m back to self-isolating, since I have an older husband.

We are merging with two other churches into one parish, and we got our new parish name from the bishop this last week, so that was exciting. (Church names remain the same.)
 
Last edited:
Our Archbishop specifically directed that we are only to follow the procedures of our parish of registration and attend there per those protocols until further notice. I found that interesting; around here, we tend to be much more inter-parish people and bounce around.
 
Our Archbishop hasn’t said anything about that, nor has the bishop of the diocese directly to the south that is opening a few days earlier than ours. I am near the state line and it’s the normal practice for us to drive down there to shop because it’s cheaper, so it’s normal to sometimes go to Mass there as well. Their governor is lifting the restriction on out-of-state visitors having to self-quarantine on the same day they are restarting Mass down there, so I’ll be going down there to Mass until the Masses start close to me again, at which point I’ll want to go to the nearest churches as it’s easier that way.
 
I was a little disappointed by it myself. I’m not planning to return to Mass (at least/especially Sunday) just yet due to health status, but there’s a neighboring parish where I can navigate my symptoms a bit better in terms of finding a comfort zone away from triggers if needed. I don’t have that same benefit in the layout of our “home” parish. 😦 Of course, I may be worried about nothing given the unusual circumstances.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top