Pastor’s Letter & January 17 Bulletin

Pastor’s Letter & January 17 Bulletin

15 Jan 2021 | Posted by: chadmin

The January 17 bulletin is now available online. Thank you to all of our sponsors on the last two pages for your continued support.

Dear friend,

Not sure if you have noticed, but our attendance at Mass has increased since Christmas. Not sure of the full reason, but I think many are comfortable coming to church because of our consistent protocols and the ease at which we can maintain social distancing in our large church. With the increase in people, we are seeing Masses fill up on the Eventbrite scheduling site earlier each week. The Eventbrite scheduling allows us to fit many people in safely, for people to know they have a seat, and where that seat is located when they enter church. With the increase in Mass attendance, we thought it’d be a good time for an update on the use of Eventbrite.

For those of you who use the Eventbrite to schedule your pew each week, thank you. This continues to work well.  Many people also call the office each week for Rhonda Parker to schedule a seat location. This also works well. All of our scheduling efforts are to keep everyone who comes to church safe. As with school this year, we continue to ask that no one who is sick or not feeling well to attend church. We distribute Communion in the parking lot after three weekend Masses to accommodate those that choose not to enter church for any reason. Every week, we have people cancel their registrations on Eventbrite because something comes up or they are not feeling well.  We are so grateful for those who choose to put the whole of the church before themselves. It helps us get as many people into church when registrations are canceled on Eventbrite if one is not going to use the registration. Either canceling on Eventbrite, or emailing Rhonda Parker, allows us to use the seat for someone else at that Mass. While we continue to schedule households to individual pews, our large center pews have allowed us to start scheduling individuals at safe social distance on each end of a pew. Essentially, the more information we have in the office, by use of Eventbrite or communicating with office staff, the better we are able to serve the parish community. Certainly there is a ray of hope with the recent vaccine release, but we need to continue to follow best protocols for the good of everyone. As a reminder, please communicate with us, schedule your weekend Mass attendance through Eventbrite or calling/emailing the office, cancel your registration if you are ill, try to avoid coming to church without a reservation, and take advantage of the outside Communion distribution when in person Mass attendance is not feasible.

For some time now, I’ve wanted to reopen the Adoration Chapel. We have purchased a new online scheduling software to ease our way back into the chapel. We are blessed with some 3000 people who have adoration chapel access cards. With this reality, we need to make sure that access to the chapel is limited and social distancing applies. When we reopen in the coming days/weeks, it will be easier to accommodate those that choose to sign up for an hour of adoration, than to accommodate walk-ins to the chapel. The use of scheduling software will easily allow for scheduling an hour or being a substitute. Please stay tuned for further information about registering as it will take a little time to work through the details. The benefits to Eucharistic Adoration impels us to open our chapel, but with needed safety, health, and personal responsibility.

Have a great week.

God bless,

Father David