No province has announced a date for the loosening of restrictions on church services. I note that Good Shepherd, Oshawa has mass times for last week posted on its website, with the note that no more than five people can attend owing to (provincial) Covid-19 related restrictions on public gatherings. Good Shepherd owns its own church, and I would imagine that five people is about the ASA anyway, let alone that at any weekday service, so I suppose this is technically doable, but the Archdiocese of Toronto has issued a statement that churches and chapels are to remain closed even for private prayer, so this arrangement at Good Shepherd is inconsistent with Bp Lopes’ directive that OCSP communities should be in step with local diocesan guidelines.There's a potential additional gotcha that may apply to all ordinariate communities in North America that use diocesan parish facilities:No other community will be holding public mass soon, I predict. Provinces contemplating more reopenings—-Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, PEI, and Newfoundland—-are exactly the provinces with no Ordinariate communities.
I note that those (US) churches which are open, or reopening, have added extra mass times or made other arrangements (streaming to the parish hall) to ensure social distancing is maintained. This would work for St John the Evangelist, Calgary, I assume, and Annunciation, Ottawa, but could pose problems for the communities in Victoria and Toronto which hold mass at an off-time in a local parish church which may now need that time for its own services. The communities in Maple Ridge, Edmonton, and Fredericton use chapels which could probably not accommodate even the normal dozen attendees at six foot intervals.One issue is that public officials are beginning to encounter the reality that citizens are following social distancing guidelines like six feet of separation, face masks, or only six people inside at a time, out of pure goodwill. In general, there is no legal or epidemiological basis for enforcing such guidelines, especially as emergency declarations expire, actual case totals prove low in most areas, and predictions by public health officials are not borne out. It may require more forceful demands from the public that such measures be justified to eliminate them in order to allow public masses to resume.
Bishops are forced to walk a fine line between advocating for the interests of their dioceses and appearing to protect their flocks. Individual Evangelical pastors are taking the lead in this area so far.
I noted yesterday that I thought there was an ordinariate group in Georgia, but I couldn't find it on the ordinariate's web site. My regular correspondent points out,
I forgot that St Aelred, Athens is of course in Georgia. Here is a letter from the clergy of the local parish which worships in the gymnatorium of the Catholic school in Athens. The Ordinariate community normally holds mass in a classroom of the same school. Fr Tipton has been streaming Sunday mass on the St Aelred Facebook page from his home chapel since mid-March.It's hard to see any excuse for the chancery not including the St Aelred parish in the parish finder, but there you are. Especially as Fr Perkins, a man of great foresight, seems to have been self-quarantining since last fall, this might have been something he could have attended to while he was otherwise idle.
Web information on the status of Catholic masses in Florida has in fact been hard to find. My regular correspondent reports,
Public mass was cancelled in Florida before Easter but is resuming next Sunday [May 10]. Services were live-streamed from Incarnation, Orlando and from Fr Mayer’s home chapel.As I mentioned yesterday, I will welcome and will publish updates on the status of ordinariate communities during the crisis.
I'm also keeping an eye out for stories on efforts by parishes in any denomination to hold church services that may be resisted by local or state officials. If anyone finds such stories, again, I'll be happy to publish them here.
