- Voluntarily arrived 1/2 hour before church, masking and gloving
- Met the cars at the gate, and verified that everyone had masks
- Directed arriving parishioners to their spaced-out pews
- Coordinated the flow of parishioners to receive Communion, then quickly exit
- Used disinfectant to clean the pews and all surfaces that could be contaminated
And, a few days ago, we were informed that mass would be suspended for 2 weeks, as COVID had been diagnosed in The Oratory.
I can't blame them for quarantining their members - some of them are older, and have medical problems. I just wish this was over.
So, we'll be home today, and at least for another week. Probably longer - I know how these things go.
I feel embarrassed to be taking this so hard. Other members of the Church worldwide have situations that are far worse - attacks on the way to church, having their churches burned down, punishments by the government for attending or belonging.
This is just a temporary halt. But it disappoints me greatly.
Once we do return, we need to brainstorm to come up with a campaign to get members back in person. We were down to fewer than 1/3 at most masses - some masses had barely 1/4 of the church in attendance. Normally, we were packed to the side benches at most masses.
Not now. It's a ghost town.
And, maybe this is a sign that we need to be doing more in the community to woo those members who have stopped attending, or who were long fallen away. Maybe this is an opportunity to form a New Evangelization Project, that reaches those who need it, but have long been absent.
5 comments:
Linda, this Covid virus has conveniently been the reason to shut down Christianity (I have not heard of any Mosques being shut down)and therefore weaken our Christian heritage in our nation. Coupled with this is the attack upon our historic figures. All of this coincides with the covid outbreak. This is a little too convenient if you ask me.
There are people playing god (with a little g on purpose) with the population of the western world for the last few months. We are pawns on a world wide chess board and we are marching to the orders of non-elected people like Fauci and some elected morons like Cuomo (where I live;upstate) and others who swallowed the blue pill and preach the mantras they are told to preach by the DNC who I am sure are a pawns to these international chess players as well.
They had it all in 2016. 8 years of Obama after 8 years of RINO Bush and then Trump broke up the party. That could not be tolerated. 3+ years of Russia Russia Russia and Impeach Impeach Impeach leading to Covid19. We have not had a break in the news cycle in the day after Trump won the election. Not only has the media been at war with this, so as the deep state.
Your Church is just a notch in the belt of whatever deep state operatives who are manipulating the game so we cannot gather and reinforce each other as Christians. Split your enemy's lines and infiltrate. That is what is going on. Keep your enemy on defense. That is what is going on.
Meanwhile, I cannot find any logic in the mask requirements or much of the other dictates we have been forced to comply with. In fact, there is much written that disposes of any notions that masks actually help and that using them is detrimental to our health.
Further, other than isolating and protecting our elderly and at risk population, our efforts should be aimed at maintaining our communities and our daily routines. This is far more beneficial to our lives than isolating at home. I would add, herd immunity is real and we need to develop it as quickly as possible and it is not possible to do so hiding at home.
I hope you get your services up and running soon and that this hysteria over any cases detected ends. I would add as a coda that the death rate keeps falling even as the detection rates rise. That says a lot about herd immunity and our having passed the worst this virus will do.
Try a TLM parish. Ours is humming right along, & there has been a 3rd Mass added to Sunday to spread out the parishioners. The Bishop still has a blanket exemption in place for all in the diocese, but you can’t drive our congregation away with a stick.
I hadn't thought of the TLMs. There is one in Charlotte, but NC is under even stricter restrictions than SC. However, I'll check it out.
Fallen away person here so if I'm understanding correctly some parish's are saying mass in Latin? My last 40 years has been in Tx and Ky and have never found a Mass except in English or Spanish. Last time I went with a friend I walked out and said when did we become protestant? There was nothing in that Mass that I recognized. I, and I know many others would go to Mass more often if it was done in Latin. We may be getting older but not many of us liked what happened to our church.
https://www.latinmassdir.org/
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