Have you heard the good news? In a step towards resuming active parish life, we will begin bringing back some volunteer liturgical ministers starting Labor Day weekend (September 5th & 6th).

In this phase of reopening, current Readers can sign up to read at weekend and daily Masses. Fingerprinted Ministers of Hospitality can sign up to welcome people, assist them to find a seat, give directions during communion and at the end of Mass, and smile through the facemask.

For this phase, we are calling back ministers who are fingerprinted and who have already been serving in these roles. Ministers of Hospitality will not be passing collection baskets; a basket is at the main doors of the church until the beginning of Mass. Additionally, offerings may be made securely and easily through the parish website or through the mail. https://nativity.weshareonline.org/

Another way some can help is to join a cleaning crew which wipes down pews and surfaces after each Mass. We will need a handful of people after each Mass able to handle household disinfectants. The parish provides supplies including gloves. Please sign up to get on the schedule https://www.nativity.org/documents/2020/8/Cleaning%20Forms.pdf

Eventually sacristans and altar servers will return. Choirs, because of social distancing requirements, are still not possible. Giving communion requires close contact and, however minimal, has some risk. Ministers of Holy Communion are limited for now to clergy and parish staff.

Speaking of Communion, we have reintroduced Communion during daily Mass. Having learned from daily Mass, we are moving Communion from the end of Sunday Mass to its proper place during Mass. We will process single file to receive Communion and go forth at the end of Mass socially distant. The change will take place on Labor Day weekend. Please watch the website for instructions.

In this phase, liturgical ministers must be at low risk for severe illness. Following the Center for Disease Control criteria, people with increased risk for severe illness are older adults and people with certain medical conditions. For everyone’s health and safety, we are limiting liturgical ministers to those between the ages of 18 and 65. We base this age limit on the CDC finding that the 65-74 years age group has five times higher probability of hospitalization and ninety times higher probability of death from COVID-19 compared to the 18-29 years age group. The older you get, the worse the statistics. Please refer to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/index.html for more information.

Some have asked an excellent question. “Why not leave it up to the volunteers to decide? Some older adults are in great health. They know the risks. They sign the waiver. Why have an age limit?”

A liturgical minister is not only a volunteer. He or she is not acting only on their own behalf.

Readers, ministers of hospitality, and so on are acting on behalf of the assembly. As such, the parish has a degree of responsibility towards them.

In my position as your pastor, I take that responsibility seriously. The responsibility is especially present in the Mass. The assembly includes parishioners and visitors who have been traveling. Children attending schools in person might have been exposed to the virus. Some facemasks “slip” below the nose. Parishioners returning to Mass after months of staying-at-home are not always familiar with where to sit or to walk. For example, several families showed up on Saturday for the 5:00 p.m. Mass just as the homily ended. They did not know that the Saturday Vigil Mass time had shifted to 4:30 p.m.

There is a personal reason at work as well. I care for your health and well-being. COVID-19 can bring severe illness that may take weeks to overcome. After recovery, some suffer long-term heart damage, stroke, lung damage, and chronic fatigue. I want to protect you from such suffering. Reopening in phases is a way to minimize the risk.

We have been conservative in our protocols such as requiring masks in all parish buildings, setting up six-foot buffers in pews, providing masks and hand sanitizer, and sanitizing surfaces after every Mass. These protocols have followed the Center for Disease Control as well as local authorities and the Diocese of Orlando.

It has paid off. We have not had any reported exposures linked to Mass attendance. We have not had to close the parish office a single day during the pandemic. No staff member has tested positive for COVID-19. Our conservative approach has made attendance at the Mass as safe as possible especially for the many elderly parishioners who attend.

The temporary age restriction does not apply to other ministries or parish meetings, as their smaller size and greater control lessen risk. Participants must of course follow social distance protocols, sign waivers, and sign-in for contact tracing.

Many of our faithful ministers are over 65 and very much want to return to serving during Mass. Five months and counting is a long time to sit on the sidelines. I ask for your patience a little longer. I get it that the age 65 temporary limit can be seen as over-the-top. I look forward to not having it. We are playing the long game. For now, we are watching among other things whether hotspots pop up in Seminole County schools and that the Seminole County positivity rate continues to drop.

Step by step, we are keeping one another safe and returning to the fullness of parish life.

In Christ,

Father David