Parish Update -- Friday, December 4, 2020
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. As you may or may not have seen, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the Director of the State Department of Health released a statement regarding the high rate of occupancy in hospitals at the moment, due to the rising Covid cases. He was encouraging everyone in the state to avoid large gatherings, including weddings, funerals, and in-person church services.
Restrictions -- Just a few moments ago, the diocese released their latest set of guidelines. Here are the new protocols:
Effectively immediately:
• All church gatherings other than Masses are suspended until further notice.
• All protocols currently in place for Masses must be strictly enforced.
• Social-Distance church capacity numbers must be kept. Flocknote has an online reservation feature that you may implement for Mass reservations.
• Weddings, if scheduled, must be small and all present must wear a mask. This includes entire wedding party, priest or deacon, photographer, coordinator and guests.
• Funerals must be small and graveside only.
• Sacraments such as baptisms and confirmations if possible should be delayed until after the Baptism of the Lord in January.
• Guadalupe celebrations outside of a Mass for the Feast on Saturday, Dec. 12 are cancelled.
o All Mass protocols apply to these Feast day Masses.
o You may incorporate the Collect of the Feast as the closing prayer for the Intercessions at the Sunday Mass, but the Sunday Mass must be for Advent.
Parish Reconciliation Services -- As I mentioned earlier, we will not have Parish Reconciliation Services. Confession is scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30 to 5:30 PM in the Mary Room in the Church.
Garage Sale -- The Garage Sale, which was scheduled for December 12 has been postponed to the Spring.
Religious Ed -- Classes have been suspended until further notice.
Immaculate Conception Mass -- This year, because of Covid, Immaculate Conception, December 8, is not a Holy Day of Obligation. Mass is at 6 PM on Tuesday. Be aware that the bulletin lists a different time. It will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.
Christmas Masses -- At the moment, we are planning on having a 5 PM Christmas Mass and a 10 AM Christmas Day Mass, and 8 PM in Corpus Christi. There will not be a Midnight Mass this year at St. Joseph.
Thank you! -- Also a huge thank you to all of you who participated in Giving Tuesday, in some way, and especially to those who gave to our Stained-Glass Window campaign. At the moment, we have raised enough to install at least the first 6 windows and there have also been some commitments made to future windows as well.
Peace,
Fr. Jason