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August 9, 2020
My Dear People,
I wanted to provide you with an update on our progress toward resuming a more normal Mass schedule.
As you know, we’ve been working closely with our Return to Jerusalem Taskforce to assess risks and safety plans throughout this pandemic. Our staff and volunteers have also been working very hard to create a safe environment whenever we gather.
We decided early on that we would only resume normal activities and gatherings when we could do them safely. We’ve been moving slowly but steadily, implementing safety practices and protocols while closely watching to see some flattening in the number of cases and other COVID measures in our State, and especially our region before moving to the next step.
The Covid-19 pandemic is still very active around us and remains a serious threat, and as such, Governor Cooper has decided, out of an abundance of caution, to extend the Phase II reopening for at least another 5 weeks until September 11.
Our efforts to create a safer indoor environment continue. We have purchased air purifiers to be installed on all of our heating and air conditioning systems on campus. We have completed that installation in many of our units in the school buildings. The purifiers for the church are currently on order. Once these are installed, we can plan for a time to resume our weekend Masses indoors. When that happens, we will have a new, temporary Mass Schedule of 5:15PM on Saturday night, 10:00AM on Sunday morning and 1:00PM in Spanish on Sunday afternoon. Even after we resume weekend Masses indoors, we will continue live-streaming Sunday Masses, one in English and one in Spanish. In addition, we will continue to offer the distribution of Holy Communion on Sunday morning for those who are prevented from coming from Mass due to being in the vulnerable population.
Please keep in mind that this is a very fluid environment in which we are operating. Everyone’s safety is and will continue to be our highest priority. It is essential that everyone continues to exercise safe practices and follow our safety guidelines. Remember to wear a mask, wash your hands frequently and watch for social distancing. These continue to be an essential part of our efforts to operate safely.
Each of us has a responsibility to protect one another and especially those who are most vulnerable. We have worked very hard to safely navigate our way this far, and we need to continue that diligence in the days ahead within our parish community.
As always, I extend my thanks to our taskforce for their continued good work in helping move through this process of renewal as a parish community of intentional disciples.
In His Love,
Very Rev. Scott E. McCue, V.F.
Pastor