ST. MARY'S DURING THE PANDEMIC
Changes to Mass at St Mary’s
As you are now aware, from Thursday 5th November, we are again in lockdown.
According to government guidelines, we are not able to hold public Masses until at least 2nd December. This means that the church will be closed and we will no longer be able to attend Mass in person.
With regards to this, St Mary’s has implemented the following:
Father Terry will continue to say Mass, however, as the church is closed and Masses will not be public, all the Masses will be streamed on
www.saintmarys.online
There will be two changes to the Mass times – there will be no Mass on Saturday at 5 pm and the only Mass on Sunday will be at 10 am.
Please see below for the Mass times:
Monday 7 pm
Tuesday 10 am
Wednesday NO MASS
Thursday 7 pm
Friday 10 am
Saturday NO MASS
Sunday 10 am
We will be looking at ways of reintroducing an opportunity for private prayer in the church in due course.
If you are aware of any parishioners who are not likely to be on e-mail, please pass this and any future communications on to them, if you can, as we will not be posting out any information during this lockdown. Of course, we will put this and future important information up on the notice boards outside the church.
Baptisms, Sacrament of Marriage and Funerals.
Baptisms are currently suspended.
Weddings are currently suspended except in exceptional circumstances.
Funerals: Funeral Masses and funeral services may continue to be celebrated with a maximum attendance of 30 people.
Being St Mary’s Parish - Staying in touch - Registration & Parish Census: Father Peter says: It is very important that I am able to keep in touch with you. The shepherd needs his flock. Please update your parish details using the parish census sheet and return it via the presbytery letterbox. It is so important that we stay in touch with each other. Notices will also be given via the streamed Masses.
Please click here to read a letter from the cardinal about this time:
Donations to our parish:
Aside from closing St Mary’s, “lockdown” has had a marked effect on our parish offertory collection and therefore our finances. We are not alone, families, businesses and all manner of different institutions are in the same position. The increase in those using our parish foodbank indicates clearly how the very vulnerable are also suffering. I do not want to put any extra burden on your shoulders, but if you were able to continue to financially support the parish I would be very grateful. Your offertory collection contributes to the running of the presbytery, church, parish centre and non-clergy salaries.
Some of you have dropped money through the presbytery letterbox, continued with your standing order or transferred money into the St Mary’s account. If you would like more information on ways to support the parish financially, please email the office contact us
One option is to use our new “Just Giving Money Page”, the link is:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charities/StMaryFinchleyEast
Obviously it is open for parishioners – but if you feel someone else might like to support the work of St Mary’s – please forward them the link.
Keeping in touch:
It is very important that I am able to keep in touch with you. The shepherd needs his flock. I will endeavour to send out a weekly newsletter to those without computers. If you are receiving post from us but have an email address, please let us know your email address.
I will also use the live-streamed Masses to convey notices.
We are trying to update our census records. Please use the form below to inform us of your current contact details. This way we will be able to keep in touch through this time. We are also keen to identify those in our community who may not be online so that we can provide them with up-to-date St Mary's information by post and perhaps a friendly phone call to those living alone or help if they need it. If you know of any St Mary's parishioners living near you but unlikely to be online please let us know.
Click here for the St Mary's parish census form:
