Dear parishioners,

I hope you’re all well. Here are the headlines for this week.

First, the good news. All Were Filled is off and running. Our first order of boxes of frozen foods is arriving today, Friday, at 4:00 p.m. Thanks be to God, there are people out there who are in need of help, and thanks to the Archdiocese, we are there for them. I repeat, if you are in need of this kind of help, call Lorna at 604-435-9611 ext 0 and place an order. If you know of anyone who you think might be in need of this help, tell them about it, and tell them how to place an order.

A second big bit of good news: the federal government has announced that the Federal Wage Subsidy will be extended until the end of December. That, combined with the generosity of the parishioners who are still contributing financially to the parish, is what is keeping us afloat, at least with respect to ordinary, unavoidable expenditures. Thanks to all of you.

Everything that follows are things that I announced last week but please read on anyway because there are a few changes and additions.

Effective Sunday, July 26th, we will open the church for attendance of a maximum of fifty people at the 11:15 and 3:00 p.m. Sunday masses. Pre-registration is necessary for attendance at these masses, in the same manner as you have been pre-registering for weekday masses. To make it possible for as many people as possible to attend Sunday mass, for the time being, we ask that you pre-register for only one Sunday mass per month.

Effective Monday, July 27th, it will no longer be necessary to limit yourself to one weekday mass per week. Also, with one exception, it will no longer be necessary to pre-register for morning masses. You will simply be asked upon arrival to provide your name and contact information, so that you can be contacted by the Public Health authorities, should someone who attended the mass test positive for Covid-19. Because we want to avoid at all costs having to turn someone away, we ask that you continue to pre-register for attendance at evening masses on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

If it should unfortunately come to pass that you are turned away from any mass because we’re already at capacity, you are welcome to remain outside, in our sheltered area. You will hear the entire mass, and at the end of mass, the priest will go out to distribute communion. An usher will be monitoring the crowd outside to make sure people are distancing.

Finally, as we see people coming back to church for masses, baptisms, and funerals, our hearts go out to the people who are prevented from coming back, either because of their own vulnerability, or the vulnerability of a loved one that they live with. For their sake, we will continue to live stream our masses for as long as it takes. However, to lighten the burden of those who are doing the live streaming, we will discontinue the live streaming of Tuesday and Thursday morning masses. Apart from those two, our current schedule of live streamed masses will be maintained.

That’s pretty well it for this week.

Keep safe everybody, don’t let your guard down, and God bless.

Fr. Guy