Preparing to implement Phase 3: reopening our church buildings.
We are happy to report that we have coordinators in place for each parish and they are currently liaising with their respective teams in terms of booking arrangements, stewarding and the cleaning of the church buildings. Sincere thanks to all those who so generously volunteered to help.
As discussions continue, it is becoming very clear that this is a complex undertaking.
For example, the booking system will require us to keep track of all requests either on line or by phone and to operate the system fairly so that people who want to come have an equal opportunity to do so.
The buildings have now been scoped for social distancing, but there remains a good deal of work to be done in preparing all three buildings and in providing information to those wishing to attend.
The actual service will not feel like a “normal Mass” and many issues surrounding the role of stewards and the need for safety before, during and after Mass are being carefully considered. With a maximum of 50 at each service, there is no possibility of a return to weekly Mass for all in the near future.
Finally, your responses to the questionnaire gave a clear indication that you consider safety paramount in all of this. Hence our decision to have a 72 hour gap between services to create a clear margin of safety for our volunteer cleaners. This will rule out any daily services and will normally require funerals to take place either on a Wednesday or a Thursday at one of the three parishes.
We shall continue to provide online weekend liturgies for both adults and children and our Cluster News will keep you informed of all that is going on in our cluster, including our plans for providing restricted communal worship.
Taking all this into consideration, we don’t anticipate the resumption of Masses in any of the parishes within the next three weeks. We aim to provide weekly updates of our plans and preparations and we kindly ask for your patience and cooperation as we all come to terms with being a faith community during a time of pandemic.
Fr Mike and Fr Alex.
