Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

1. The Bishop's dispensation of attending Mass is still in place, so no one is required to attend Mass. Anyone who has a fever, is sick or has a cough should NOT attend Mass.
2. Attendance at Mass will require a pre-registration.  We are still selecting the way to preregister, but will likely involve using an online registration.  Folks not online will be able to call the office to register during the week. Registration will help us participate in contact tracing, or if someone attending informs us later of having Covid-19, we can alert the others attending the same service.
3. In starting this, we will only be using two church buildings – St. Irenaeus (STI) and St. John the Baptist (SJB).  We want to limit the number of churches that we need to clean, and we chose those two sites because they have hard surface pews that are more easily cleaned. Furthermore, frequent cleaning and sanitizing at St. Joseph (SJV) and Our Lady of Joy (OLOJ) could damage the cloth seats.  We are hoping that we will be able to have more than 25 people per weekend Mass, so we won’t use St. Januarius (SJAN) yet (other than for Monday night Mass) because of the small seating capacity.  This in no way means that our other churches will be closed after the pandemic.  It’s simply what we can do during the pandemic with the special restrictions in this yellow phase.  If we can safely and properly open more churches for Masses, we will do so.  
4. We may be permitted to have folks watch livestream from the parking lot, or use an FM transmitter to have folks listen from car radios.  If you have an FM transmitter we could use, please contact Rich Myler, our communication and technology manager (communication@opvcatholic.org).
5. For weekday Mass-goers, we will keep the same times, but restrict them to STI and SJB (and SJAN on Monday night) as we begin.
6. We will continue to livestream, but will need to livestream from the churches where we're having Masses.  For the weekend, we will livestream from STI on Saturday and from SJB on Sunday, and throughout the week every 9 AM Mass.
7. Weekday Masses at SJV will move to STI and weekday Masses at OLOJ will move to SJB for this phase.  Monday night Mass at SJAN at 6:30 will still be there with St. Anthony and St. Jude devotions following.
8. Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals are still limited to 25 persons, but since they are less frequent, we can use any church requested.
9. Each church will have a designated entrance door and a designated exit door.  Please follow the signage inside and outside the churches.
10. Ushers and Greeters will welcome participants, check their registration and seat them in designated areas socially distanced.
11. There should not be movement around during Mass.  Plan ahead and avoid needing a restroom, but they will be open for those needing them.
12. Everyone attending must wear a face mask.  We may have masks available at the entrance.  Suggested donation for a mask: disposable $1, washable $2.
13. Gloves are not required nor recommended. Handwashing is encouraged.
14. Those assisting will be required to wash hand before and after Mass.
15. Ministers in the sanctuary will keep social distance but do not need to wear a face mask.
16. Holy Communion (hosts only) will be distributed after Mass is over.  During Mass the priest and deacon will receive and then reserve hosts in the tabernacle.  After Mass is over, clergy only will distribute hosts as people exit the building.  Receiving on the hand is recommended, but communicants can receive on the tongue if desired.  Clergy will distribute at designated Communion stations with hand sanitizer so if their fingers accidentally touch someone, they can sanitize before distributing the next host.
17. Each Mass will have the following to serve: a priest and possibly a deacon, two altar severs, one lector, one keyboardist and one cantor.  Choirs are not permitted at this time. Mature altar servers are preferred, so high school students and adults who may have served when young or willing to learn now.
18. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion will not be needed in this phase, so we are asking them especially to help with other roles during the yellow phase of the pandemic.  
19. We need 4 FOUR specially trained cleaners to clean and sanitize the church after Mass.
20. I'm still working out how to collect offerings.  It may be easier to have a basket to drop envelopes rather than have ushers handle and touch items during Mass.