Dear Friends,
We are in the latter stages of making plans for a phased re-opening. To help us, please complete a very simple two-question survey. You also have the chance to leave a personal comment. It should take less than a minute and will really help us.
The parish offices will soon be open for staff who need to come in to work. Following State and CDC guidelines, staff who can work from home will continue to do so over the summer months. We will not be receiving visitors at the parish office and there will be no group meeting of any kind at the parish house over the summer. It may soon be possible to meet one-to-one with a priest, but this will happen in the Church; masks will need to be worn and social distancing observed. These are trying times for all of us and I am grateful to so many of you for the many encouraging email exchanges and conversations that my colleagues and I have had with you over the past few weeks; thank you. Please continue to pray hard for our parish community, and our city.
I want to share some initial thoughts from our planning with you:
We hope that the church will be open for private prayer and in-person worship at lunchtime in early July. I know that some of you have been longing for the chance to pray, to attend a quiet service, or to light a candle. Initially, the church will be open from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. (This is to allow our custodial staff the time to clean and disinfect and stagger their working hours.)
Masks will need to be worn on entry and exit and throughout worship. Everyone entering the parish house or the church will have their temperature checked using non-contact digital thermometers. There will be an entrance and exit route with a one-way system through the church building. Pews will be marked in such a way as to allow for proper social-distancing of at least 6 feet.
When coming to worship, a member of the security team will need to take contact details. This is in case we are made aware of someone worshipping with us who is diagnosed subsequently with COVID-19, so that we can alert you.
Hand sanitizer stations will be at the entry and exit points of the church and near the shrines and chapels.
It is essential that anyone exhibiting any cold or flu-like symptoms should not come into the church building at this time.
During July and August, Monday to Saturday, we shall continue to offer one service which will also be webcast. Intercessions at the Shrine of our Lady of Fifth Avenue has become an important ministry during the past three months with many requests for prayer coming in each week. We shall continue to offer these prayers at 12pm, beginning with the traditional recitation of the Angelus (memorial of the Incarnation). The Holy Eucharist will then be offered in the Chantry Chapel.
For the time being, the main Sunday Eucharist will continue to be recorded and released on the website at 8am. There are three reasons for this:
1. We currently have no air-conditioning in the church. A project to replace the ‘chillers’ was halted due to the lock-down. Although work has resumed and the engineers are working very hard, it will not be possible to turn the system on until mid-August. The church is already becoming very uncomfortable and we cannot bring fresh air into the building (a recommendation of CDC). The wardens, chair of the building committee, and the clergy feel this raises the risk of infection and wish to postpone large gatherings until the building has proper access to fresh, chilled air.
2. In-person worship is currently limited to only 25 % of capacity with social distancing being the over-riding factor. In our case, I calculate that 25% capacity of the main Nave and Chantry is 258 people. However, when we observe social distancing of six feet, that reduces the number to 210. Since we have to include the clergy, any musicians, and acolytes, we very quickly get to a maximum congregation of 200. Many of you have already told me that you will not return to the city or to Sunday worship for some time yet for a number of reasons, including health concerns. Nevertheless, our average Sunday attendance is around 600 people so with only one choral liturgy, the chances are that we will have to limit numbers – hence the survey.
3. We have begun a project to install cameras to complement our excellent sound system so that we can move to live video-webcasting, hopefully by the end of the summer. Our Bishop, along with church leaders of all the Christian denominations, is expecting us to offer a webcast ministry even when we are fully open for public worship.
Our survey will help us gauge the best way of preparing for in-person Sunday worship. We want to ensure that we keep everyone safe in our community.
I am grateful to the hard work being done by staff and lay leaders as we navigate our way through many rules and regulations. At the same time, we have been working to support Amy Francisco and the school faculty as they also prepare various scenarios for the new school year in September.
A prayer for our parish:
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven
and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Affectionately,
Carl,
Your Priest and Pastor
