Resumption of public Mass

[PetraG]

you could do what my church did…divvy up the congregation into the appropriate numbered groups and added enough Masses to cover the lot. Extra work for our priests but much appreciated by us the laity.

Our Archbishop has asked that parishes not discriminate between parishioners and non-parishioners because for various legitimate reasons some parishes won’t be able to re-open as soon as others will. He is not placing pressure on pastors to re-open before they are ready, but rather is requiring them to be able to comply with safety guidelines set down by the Archbishop before they do so. (Yes, the priests were given an opportunity to give him feedback before he made the guidelines public.) The laity, meanwhile, are asked to refrain from putting themselves on the waiting list for in-person Mass attendance at more than one place. If I remember correctly, he is asking pastors with the means to disinfect their churches–this takes access to both disinfectant and suitable workers–to offer Mass for a gathering up to twice on every day of the week, with the rules for adding or eliminating Masses temporarily suspended.

 

[Pattylt]

I’m just going to throw around a couple of ideas and warnings…

If you have a Mass as first come first to get in, you will have crowds gathering waiting for the doors to open. What if it’s raining?

This might sound absurd to many but for years, our synagogue had its High Holy services using tickets that were mailed to us. There has never been enough seating to hold everyone and this was their solution. They did reserve some seating for visitors at each service, though not very many and they had to wait until just before services started to be allowed in. Tickets might not work for all. The tickets themselves showed which service they went to and as far as I am aware, no one could change their allotted time.

There almost has to be some rotation of who gets in. How to divide it is the problem. By age? Families vs. single/couples? Assign people a color code?

I wish all of you good luck. Everyone will need to be patient and kind as it gets worked out. And, I agree about volunteers for cleaning duty! If you don’t as, you’ll never get any but ask and they will very likely come! Most people are very willing to give a bit of their time and elbow grease to their church if asked!

 

[TheLittleLady]

Appointment software will solve this. Easy to do. Where I am, there are plenty of weekly Masses to accommodate everyone.

We have limited facilities and limited priest-hours.

We also have about 1/3 of our parishioners who do not have access to the internet. Appointment scheduling will require staffing over the weekend, the Church cannot afford overtime! We simply do not have volunteers who are young enough and without the at risk medical statuses.

Oh, and ETA. Also limited to volunteers who do not feel Covid is a giant government conspiracy and think it is a direct insult to US Citizenship to wear a mask because these ushers have to make sure everyone IS wearing a mask, and wear one themselves.

 

[Usige]

Announced today: Our ordinations will take place May 22-23 with limited number of seats so attendance by invitation only. Archbishop Lucas of Omaha, Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Lincoln during the medical leave of Bishop Conley, will preside.

That’s good. We have two priest who’s ordinations will also go forward this month, but the ordination of my class of permanent deacons is currently on hold indefinitely. We were originally told that we would be ordained as soon as public masses resumed, but they are now “hoping” to ordain us sometime before churches potentially get closed for the fall flu season. Currently we have been told to be patient and to wait and see.

I’ve been reading the book of Job a lot more the past several weeks.

 

[Usige]

My archdiocese announced masses will be starting again this weekend.

We have been talking about the one thing that was really not mentioned in the notice… the fact that Gov Polis still has the “no more than 10 persons” edict in place. My pastor has said he expects chaos when a couple hundred people show up and only 5 - 10 are seated.

 

[Gertabelle]

I got an email from one parish informing us that this weekend only 10 people would be allowed at each mass, and by invitation only. This is a HUGE parish, with about 6000 parishioners.

They also outlined their plans for the weeks following this weekend, with drive-in masses among the plans.

The parish where I’m actually registered is maintaining radio silence. Not sure what the plan is there.

 

[PetraG]

As one article I read said, “do not plan on frequently attending Mass” for awhile.

I do not want to be the usher who has to declare “no more inside”.

Our Archbishop has said, “If your name and contact information isn’t on the list in advance, you’re not going in. Period. No exceptions. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.” That takes the pressure off of the ushers. (With roughly 20 people to screen, it isn’t a lot of contacts.)

Our Governor is allowing groups of up to 25, but the Archbishop has made it extremely clear that this includes every soul in attendance. No exceptions. I think he’s suggesting phone requests to the parish office during office hours or requests by e-mail, take those up to a certain day, notify the ones who have the opportunity, and then keep a rolling list after that. (People have the chance to give notes about the days they cannot attend and to identify members of the same household.)

This is only to give some people who aren’t at particular risk a chance to attend Mass once every few weeks or once a month until the restrictions are rolled back some more. It isn’t seen as a long-term system! (He is encouraging parishes to try to offer Mass up to twice a day, if they have enough volunteers and sanitizing supplies to sanitize the church’s high-touch surfaces that often. That is the practical sticking point, I think.)

 

[commenter]

We have two priest who’s ordinations will also go forward this month

Prayers for the two imminent priests, as well as for Deacon candidates.

But only 2 for the diocese of Lincoln? Wasn’t it much higher in the recent past? I assume these are Diocesan.

 

[Glennon_P]

But only 2 for the diocese of Lincoln? Wasn’t it much higher in the recent past? I assume these are Diocesan.

Lincoln has six priest ordinations and two diaconate ordinations this year (praise God!). @Usige is from a different diocese.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Looks like the Archdiocese of Baltimore is going to start with weddings and funerals (only 10 people allowed) now, and some areas, probably the rural ones, will start with Mass at the end of the month.

They also made a little instructional video of the type shown on airplanes to instruct people on safety measures. It starts with 1 minute or so of the Archbishop making a speech, then moves on to the animation.

Basically looks like common sense stuff…wear a mask, sit at a distance from others in the pew, don’t gather before or after, the priest won’t process down the aisle, etc.

 

[Flor]

Our Archbishop opened up the churches in our region to 25 attendees per Mass. My Parish had a successful 7 mass weekend, and there’s 5 additional Masses added in weekdays. 17 Masses, our congregation is so large, this will cover less than 25%. Observing safety measures, masks, distancing, church is maintaining a list of those who attended for contact tracing in the event of exposure. So many people calling to sign up for a service, there’s an actual Lottery. Yes, you have to win the lottery to attend. And our Priest says plainly, you come at your own risk. And if you are even slightly sick with anything, stay home. If you are at risk, stay home. I won’t be able to attend until there’s a vaccine. This does hurt. I normally lead a small choir of Spanish Girls, playing piano, singing. But I am the oldest … Grandma . The at risk category. I miss the children and our beautiful music. I wonder sometimes if it is all gone forever.