This coming Sunday, May 24, we will hold our first Mass coming out of the shut down. After much discussion, we are taking a very measured approach to our return to Sunday Mass. As you have probably heard repeatedly, our gathering and Mass will look very different for a time.
First off, we decided we need to begin by offering only one Mass for the first few weekends. The challenges of seating, traffic flow, and post Mass cleaning will need to be refined. Therefore, this coming Sunday, the one Mass will be at our 10:30 time at St. Anthony. We will alternate the following weekend to St. Joe’s at our accustomed 4:00 pm Saturday time. Our seating with the social distance requirement will be very limited at both locations. The seating arrangement for St. Anthony’s with the 6 foot social distance is 50 seating places. That’s drastically less than a normal Sunday attendance and so we need to constrain our presence. If you are interested in coming to Mass this weekend, we would like you to make a reservation through a telephone call to the parish office (812) 423-5209, through the app or website, or an email, allsaintsparish@evdio.org. If our numbers exceed our capacity, we might ask you to hold off until the following week.
If you are considered in the vulnerable group to this virus, please stay home. We will continue to offer the recorded Mass via our website, app or Facebook. If you are retired, in the elder range of age and want to attend Mass, consider doing your “Sabbath” during the week. Beginning June 2, we are going to offer daily Mass on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9:00 am in the St. Anthony church. It will be a lot safer for you to attend these weekday Masses and it will allow others to attend on Sunday who have work responsibilities.
This is what to expect on coming to the Sunday Mass:
· A mask is required and we encourage you to bring personal hand sanitizer.
· Everyone will enter by the 1st Ave. entrance and will have their temperature taken.
· There will be no hymnals or bibles.
· There will be no holy water provided.
· Sit only where there is a marked (blue X) seating space.
· The bathroom is only for dire emergency. Best to consider the bathroom not available.
· All will exit the church through the same front entrance with dismissal lead by an usher.
· We encourage you to avoid bunching up and forming groups.
We know this will be a tedious routine to adjust to, but if we abide by this regimen we have a better chance of being able to say at the end of it all that no one contracted the virus at an All Saints Mass. Our overriding concern is for your safety and the safety of our staff. In this time, God is just as happy with our worship of Him from within the sanctuary of our homes. Let’s be wise and prudent in minimizing the risks of contracting and spreading this virus.