Advent restrictions continue - Rector's Rambling for December 13, 2020

 Unless something absolutely miraculous happens in the next week, we can reasonably assume now that we will continue to be under the “nine-person plus the priest” limit for worship, not only for this Sunday and next, but also for Christmas Eve and Day.

I share your frustration with these restrictions, but as I mentioned last week, it is my greatest privilege to make present Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  And if offering nine services on Saturday/Sunday is what it takes to make receiving Communion possible for those who want to receive it and can get here, then that is what I rejoice to be able to do!

This week we will publish a schedule for Christmas Eve and Day.  How many of these should I offer?  I am not sure yet.  I am assuming that there will be more than the 70 or 80 people who have been attending the last three weeks.  But I also think that those who make St. John’s their Special Feast Day parish will probably abstain from attending because of COVID19 precautions.  Not many other parishes can offer such a grand Christmas Eve service with a fantastic choir in a glorious 160-year-old building!  But this year we can’t have the big hurrah that we usually do because of the size restriction.

I have decided that we will sing some Christmas Carols at all the services we will offer for the Eve and Day.  Thankfully they are all familiar, and 10 of us can sing them without having to have the organist and choir with us at all the Masses (which would take up seven of the 10 spots available anyway.).  And since it will only be 10 of us at a time, we will have plenty of room to spread out in order to sing, as we did safely with 25% occupancy from July until the further restrictions were imposed three weeks ago.

Pray for a miracle that things will change ahead of all this, but also, please pray for guidance for how we can do all of this if the restrictions persist.

 

Advent and Christmas? - Rector's Rambling for December 6, 2020

       This is now our third edition of The Parish Chronicle that is also doubling as The Eagle, our parish newsletter.  Our contract is to have 200 issues printed weekly, paid for by the advertising.  Since March we have been printing fewer because of COVID19 shutdowns and limitations of attendance size, so we can have extra copies printed to mail to everyone on the parish mailing list.

Speaking of COVID-19 we are once again under a restriction by the ecclesiastical authorities of the four dioceses in Michigan, but this time the parishes are limited to only 10 people (including the priest) in the building for worship services.  We have a system in place to sign up to be one of the 10 people at a service using a site called SignUpGenius, which can be found through the link on our Web site at www.StJohnsDetroit.org.  The signup for the coming Saturday/Sunday is available beginning on Tuesday Morning.  This weekend there are nine services being offered.  We may add more as needed.

God willing, we will be restored to our 25% of building occupancy limit soon, making sign-ups unnecessary.  But this newsletter is also an advanced warning that Christmas will be different this year!!!  Basically, we have two possibilities for Christmas services:

1) If we are restored back to the 25% of occupancy rule, then we will have two Christmas Eve services – 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM – and one on Christmas Day at 11:00 AM.  All services will be in the church which allows plenty of space for 200 people to be present while social distancing.  All three services will have Christmas Carols.  One change is that the 4:00 PM service will be a family service, but with the pageant portion on hiatus for one year.

2) If we are still under the restriction of 10 people per service, I will be scheduling a ridiculously large number of services on Christmas Eve and Day so that everyone who desires to worship and receive the Blessed Sacrament on this most holy of days will have the opportunity to do so!

Please check on-line at www.StJohnsDetroit.org, or on our Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/stjohnsdetroit to see which schedule will be in place for Christmas, and sign up (if required) to be present for worship.  All worship will continue to be live-streamed for those unable to join us in person.

As your parish priest I consider it a great honor to make present our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament, and to make the Sacrament available to as many people as can possibly be present.  Worship is important.  Hearing the Word of God proclaimed and expounded upon in the sermon is important.  Gathering together with other members of the Body of Christ is important.  But to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood in the Holy Sacrament is life-giving! (See John 6:47–58)

God willing, whether it be in groups of 10 or more, I look forward to seeing you, worshiping with you, and helping to feed you in Word and Sacrament.