Mass Church opening from 4th July
Good afternoon everyone I have some good news. As from the 4th July I will be able to celebrate mass in our churches. I will celebrate mass on Sunday 5th July but this will only be for the stewards and their household. This is to give the stewards an opportunity to experience for themselves the changes necessary to keep everyone safe and be able afterwards to help you feel safe when you come to church. I have a programme of masses for people to attend starting from the 6th July but because of social distancing (2metres) there is a restriction on the number able to attend. People will need to book a place in advance by emailing me at office@tpicr.co.uk and give a contact phone number for the purpose of test and trace. Alternatively you may ring 01709 363753 and leave a message on the answer phone. If you are attending as a family or social bubble I will need to have the names of everyone attending. Lack of information will invalidate the booking. We will begin taking bookings as from Friday 3rd July. There is an alternative system of booking being tested elsewhere and if it proves to be successful it may be employed here at a later date.
The role of volunteer stewards is crucial so much so that without stewards present I am not able to celebrate mass. This means that we need as many volunteers as possible to help to keep our churches open. If you are below 70 years of age and not clinically vulnerable please consider volunteering. Let me know asp. So far between St Mary’s and St Gerards we have 30 volunteers but we could do with more to help share in the responsibility.
The schedule for opening is as follows.
Monday St Mary’s open at 9-30 mass at 10am
Tuesday St Gerards open at 9-30am mass at 10am
Wednesday St Gerards open at 9-30am mass at 10am
Thursday St Mary open at 6-30pm mass at 7-00pm
Friday St Mary open at 9-30am mass at 10am.
Saturday St Gerards open at 10-30am mass at 11am
St Mary’s open at 5-30pm mass at 6-00pm
Sunday St Mary’s open at 8-30am mass at 9-00am
St Gerards open at 10-30am mass at 11-00am.
People must arrive before mass begins, late arrivals may not be admitted.
The Sunday obligation does not apply. This means you do not have to go to mass on a Sunday. There will be people who, because of work commitments, can only attend on a Sunday but if you are able to choose from a number of days then you may pick a day other then Sunday for your regular visit to mass.
Finally, while we are able to return to attending our services we are not going back to how things were. We cannot because we still have to live with the virus. New ways of behaving have to be accepted and I ask that we all approach this moment in the life of our parish with a generous heart. May God Bless us all.
Fr D