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Covid-19 Update 4th April 2022

As of Monday 4 April, the wearing of face coverings in church buildings is considered advisable rather than mandatory. The numbers of those infected remain relatively high. People are urged to be cautious and respectful of others whilst at services or events. The advice on the archdiocesan website can be found here.

You may have heard or read the Scottish Government Covid-19 update on 15 March 2022. During it the First Minister confirmed that from Monday 21 March - with one temporary, precautionary exception - the remaining domestic legal measures would be lifted and replaced with appropriate guidance. The one temporary, precautionary exception was the wearing of face coverings on public transport and in certain indoor settings. This requirement remains in place for “for a further short period.” The Scottish Government have signalled that, even when the legal requirement is lifted, the wearing of face coverings will convert to guidance.


You will have noticed over past weeks that some of the restrictions in church that we operated with have been eased and elements of our celebration of Mass have been reintroduced. This will continue.


Going forward we will, however, ask everybody attending Mass in all of our three parishes to continue to wear a face covering. Additionally, we would ask everybody to continue to please respect the space of fellow parishioners where possible. 


We will continue to make hand sanitiser available.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to everybody who has made it possible for us to continue to gather, when permitted, during the past two years to celebrate Mass in as safe an environment as possible.  This includes our Parish Covid Coordinators, those who developed and manged the booking system, the teams of stewards who welcomed people and took contact details, those who ensured that our churches were cleaned and sanitised after Mass, and those who monitored Scottish Government and Archdiocesan publications and communications to ensure that we were compliant with the current requirements and guidance.  As with so many of the varied ways in which countless people selflessly serve our communities, much of this happened unseen in the background. 

Gerry Mulvenna, on behalf of the Strategy Group

Easing of restrictions in our Places of Worship

Dear brothers and sisters,

Many thanks to all for your cooperation in moving smoothly to our new Mass arrangements. From 4/5 Sept there will be some further changes. Always check the latest edition of the news to know what the current arrangements are.




On Tuesday 3 August, the First Minister announced that Scotland would “..move beyond level 0…” She added that this move “…will entail the lifting of most of the remaining legally imposed restrictions - most notably on physical distancing and limits to the size of social gatherings.” This means there is no longer a legal requirement to have limits on the number of people that can attend Mass and other services in our churches.


This change came into effect on Monday 9 August. As a result of this, with effect from Saturday 21 / Sunday 22 August 2021, we will make a number of important changes.

These will be kept under review and we will continue to watch out for any further Scottish Government guidance or advice. The changes can be found here.




Social distancing reducing from 2 metres to 1 metre (19th July)

In level 0, social distancing has been reduced from 2m to 1m for indoor public places. From 24/25 July, the numbers we can now accommodate safely at Mass are: St Gregory's 60, St Catherine's 92 and St John Vianney's 100. Please continue to book as usual.

For weddings and funerals, the number we can safely accommodate in our three churches will be broadly similar. Please email us if you have any questions. soutedclust@btinternet.com



Places of worship are re-opening (26 April 2021)

The 50-capacity restriction on places of worship in Scotland is being changed from Monday 26 April. Capacity will be determined by the size of the church, with the continued requirement of 2 metre physical distancing. It means bigger churches will be able to welcome more people to Mass. Since all three parishes are already operating at maximum capacity, there will be no increase in the numbers attending our weekend Masses.


From 26 April the maximum capacity at both weddings and funerals will rise to 50 (it is currently 5 for weddings and 20 for funerals). Again, this will depend on the size of the church building, and none of our parishes can safely accommodate that number. For those planning a church wedding please use the parish email address for more information: southedclust@btinternet.com and for funerals, attendance will be the responsibility of the funeral director.

 

You will continue to find links to online/streamed Masses on our Cluster website. We will continue to produce our lockdown liturgy each weekend and this will be available online and through a dedicated telephone service (for those who do not have internet access).

We will provide a dedicated liturgy for children as well.

 

Let’s continue to pray for one another during the ongoing challenges the pandemic brings, and to remember especially those experiencing any sort of difficulty as a result of this.

 

With my prayers,

Fr Alex