COVID-19 Events Protocol Update

(This article was first published in the August 9 parish bulletin.)

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Brothers and Sisters, grace and peace to each of you.

Last week we began a series of updates for you postreopening as something of a state of the parish which will continue over the next month or so.

First was a brief financial update published last week (now available on our website), and this week I’d like to offer an update on our policy for in-person events during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As you’ll remember, beginning Thursday, March 19 we cancelled all our events, including liturgies and in-person classes at our school, leaving Adoration as the only onsite public event.

As you know, these measures were by no means taken lightly, but instead done only out of a grave sense of responsibility for the health and safety of our parishioners in the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, we have re-opened our liturgies to the public, albeit on a limited basis, and plan to begin in-person classes for our school and faith formation program for the 2020-21 academic year.

And while we are grateful that we are able to gather together in these ways and are cautiously optimistic in our outlook moving forward, we know full well that the COVID-19 virus has not gone away, and that even our bestlaid plans and precautions remain subject to change as we better understand the dynamics, risks, and consequently our ability to safely host liturgies and classes on our campus.

It’s for this reason that we have decided to continue the suspension of most any and all in-person events here at Nativity of Our Lord except for those most essential to our spiritual ministry and educational mission.
 

• Click here for the full Updated COVID-19 Events Policy [Note: updated March 2021]

Our first priority is to protect our ability to continue to safely host liturgies and classes on campus, and at this time that means limiting our scope of on-campus events to just those.

We know that there are a great many ministries, clubs, and organizations here at Nativity of Our Lord that will be affected by this policy, and I want to personally thank them and their many members for their understanding and cooperation during this challenging time.

We encourage all our groups to meet via phone or video conferencing as much as possible and to explore other ways to remain connected and to continue their important work in new and creative ways.

Our parish staff has been contacting their leaders and are ready and available to help however we can to that end. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Finally, let us continue to remember our brothers and sisters who aren’t able to join us in person at public liturgies, and pray for all who suffer the ongoing ill effects of this pandemic -- physically, spiritually, financially, and emotionally.

Again, please check back next week for another state of the parish update.

And may God bless your week.

Fr. Patrick Hipwell, Pastor