NOTICE FROM FATHER THABISO

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

The much awaited news regarding the reopening of the Churches has finally reached us, we sincerely appreciate the news. We come from a very difficult time locally and globally. In the past 6 months I had the joy of witnessing, as a parish priest and a dean, the resilient spirit in the faithful and the clergy in the deanery. My litany of gratitude would include the committed and sensible leadership of our parish and the clergy in the deanery. We have succeeded to let faith and reason have the final word in the tough decisions we had to make. I am eternally grateful to the sacrifices made by each of you to keep the parish going. The support and hard work that has been going on in the background has not gone unnoticed: We continued to worship each day as a parish, workers continued to keep our church running, the outreach crew continued to reach out to the needy on our behalf, funerals and all logistics that go with that continued uninterrupted, we continued to receive moral and financial support from you. For all these and many other sacrifices, we thank you and God bless you immensely.

So far we have acted responsibly to safeguard the precious lives of our fellow parishioners. Unfortunately we have not succeeded to reach out to the sick admitted to the hospitals, some have died without the spiritual support of the clergy. For those that have died, may their souls rest in peace. We continue to ask God to give us the strength we need to keep on the right track at this stage of our battle against the pandemic.

Receiving of the sacrament during the mass

As we approach the altar to receive the sacrament we will again have our hands sanitized before reaching Fr. or the Minister of the Eucharist. The sacrament will only be given into your hands and under no circumstances will it be given on the tongue. This is again to ensure that the necessary protocols are being followed.

Confessions

From the 1st October we shall resume our ‘normal’ parish life. As from Tuesday, 22 September we shall offer confession in the cry chapel from 17h00-17h45 each day (except the 24th September and Saturday and Sunday) until the 30th September. This will enable you as the faithful to prepare yourselves spiritually to receive the Eucharist worthily.

Ministries

All of you who are involved in the running of the various parish ministries namely: Readers, Eucharistic Ministers, Music Leaders, Board Operators, Altar Servers are all requested rework your rosters and begin to start your ministries scheduling. And if there is anyone who is willing to join any of these ministries we welcome you and thank you for your commitment and time.

Covid Committee

We are required to have the Covid Committee that will be tasked to manage on our behalf the Covid protocol and ensure that we are compliant as far as the Covid safety requirement is concerned. We are in the process of setting up the committee.

Booking for Masses

According to our calculations, we have 135 slots for individual bookings for each mass. This booking will be required for the weekend masses and no restriction will be followed for the week day masses. On arrival at the church please stand on the yellow dots on the outside and wait to be called to facilitate the smooth flowing of people into the church. We will all be required to go through temperature screening, hand sanitizing and wearing of masks at all times. The Archbishop warned us about complacency, let us continue to march forth with all discipline in the fight against the pandemic. The benches have been marked with red stickers let us observe social distancing by sitting at the marked spots.

You are requested to arrive at least half an hour before each mass so that the protocols/ procedures can be carried out timeously and allow mass to begin on time.

We will certainly keep you all informed about everything that needs to be communicated going forward.

May God bless us all.