Over the last few months we’ve endured a long closure and the slow reopening of our church for Mass. There has been a lot of work involved but our goal has been to open the church, following the best health guidelines available to us so that those attending can feel safe.
Following health guidelines has definitely had an impact on the capacity of our church. While the guidelines state that 1/3 capacity of the church is allowed, the need to provide 6 feet of space between families limits us further. For Sunday Masses we’ve been able to accommodate about 75 people . Unfortunately we have had to turn away a few people on some Sundays when we hit our capacity.
Our Mass schedule has been amended to allow 72 hours between our Sunday Mass and our first weekday Mass to reduce the amount of sanitizing and cleaning we have to do, but the church is being fully sanitized in between our weekday masses and we’ve reduced seating at those masses to also make it easier to ensure surfaces are sanitized. Even confessions have added complexity. They’ve moved to the sacristy with a screen to allow for social distancing and to keep a barrier between parishioners and the priest. After each person that goes to confession, the chair is removed, sanitized and a new chair is put in it’s place.
The St. Lawrence Choir has been reduced down to only our Organist, and a Cantor or occasionally one person on guitar and voice. Our choir misses their ministry to the church for certain.
We recently celebrated the Feast of St. Lawrence, an event that usually is attended by the Deacons of our Diocese (in recognition of St. Lawrence’s role as Deacon), and involves a Solemn Mass, a procession and a reception afterwards. Unfortunately this year we could not extend our invitation to the Deacons, and we could not have a procession, but we were very happy to welcome Bishop Crosby who presided the Solemn Mass.
The Covid restrictions have also had other impacts on the Parish. We have not been able to rent our hall so we’ve missed the various celebrations of weddings, baptisms, and other family milestones. Even funeral receptions are not possible – it is a difficult time to grieve.
Our friends at Vivere Sani have not been able to run their weekly senior’s bingo – This is a weekly event that many of the seniors really look forward to and we always enjoy them being here – we pray that they will be able to return soon !
As things progress, we will perhaps see restrictions loosened, or if things go the other way, we may see additional closures but whatever the outcome, we thank our parishioners and benefactors for the ongoing support of the church during the last several months.