Thursday, March 12, 2020

 

Pastor’s Note

As your pastor, I have been carefully monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation and its impact on our parish.  I have been in consultation with the Archdiocese of Baltimore, members of our parish staff, and reviewing statements from public health agencies.  Since the virus is spread by personal contact, containment efforts stress social distancing by restricting travel, meetings and other gatherings.

Accordingly, I inform you that I have decided to take the following actions to protect parishioners and our staff members, and visitors to our parish:

• Cancel all personal contact meetings, including Faith Formation Classes, Bible Studies, group meetings at the parish facilities, until further notice.
• Cancel all planned events, where people would gather, until further notice.

There are many ways to continue parish operations without face to face contact, to include:

• Conduct meetings by conference call, Skype, Google Groups or other methods.
• Use a webinar service for large meetings like monthly meetings.
• Use of cell phone, email or text to communicate with parish staff members.
• Use of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) for parish communications.
• Set up call trees to contact parishioners and to ascertain their wellbeing.
• Use of On-line Giving applications for contributions.

Additional up-to-date information is available for you and your family members on the websites of the:

Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov)

World Health Organization (www.who.int)

Remember that those who are 60 years of age or older, and anyone who is medically compromised are highly vulnerable to this disease.

This is a moment to deepen our commitment to Jesus Christ and our commitment to the mission of the Church.  There will, no doubt, be many opportunities in coming weeks to live out our call to discipleship within our families, to our neighbors and to larger communities of our fellow citizens.  May God bless you and your loved ones.  Please know that each of you is in my prayers each day, and please pray for your parish staff during this challenging time.

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