The news has been mixed lately. On the one hand, there are signs of hope. Social distancing has worked to keep our hospitals and healthcare workers from being overwhelmed! We have experienced deaths, all of them tragic, but fewer than might have been without the measures. On the other hand, the experts are warning us that there will be no return to normal. Even if we are allowed to leave our homes again soon, we may face many months where only very small groups are permitted, where mask wearing is the norm, and where six feet becomes the new “close contact.”
We simply do not know what the future holds, and I am beginning to worry that we will not see a “normal” Mass again for a few months yet. Our bishops have been wonderful during this crisis, and I trust they will provide us with the maximum flexibility at every stage that also allows us to keep our communities safe and healthy; but I worry that this may not include Mass for a while, and I want our community to prepare for that reality. Nevertheless, please rest assured that I am as anxious to resume public worship as you are, and I am committed to working with Fr. Ross to make sure that your Bellingham priests continue to look for ways we can continue to bring you the Good News and the grace of Jesus Christ, no matter what form that takes. The Lord has not stopped working, and neither have we.
As always, thank you for your prayers and your patience. I continue to take solace in the fact that we are all in this together.
New Procedure for Receiving Communion
With the prospect of an indeterminate suspension of communal Masses, it is important that our parish at least have a system where the faithful can have regular access to communion. For the safety of our community, we absolutely need to avoid anything that would bring people from multiple quarantine groups together, which generally prevents us from scheduling anything on campus that would result in a line or a crowd. So Fr. Moore is going to try to bring communion to our parishioners on their doorsteps. He will be adequately protected and sanitized to keep from spreading anything himself, and this will prevent any quarantine circles from overlapping. The hope is, at least for this first cycle, to make sure each parishioner who would like to is able to receive communion once during the Easter Season. The procedure is as follows:
For those living inside our parish boundaries: Fr. Moore will be visiting multiple Bellingham neighborhoods each week and will be driving house-to-house in each neighborhood on the designated nights. Please sign up to be visited by using this webform. More instructions will be sent out via e-mail before any visits are made.
For those living outside our parish boundaries: Please use Fr. Moore’s Bookings website to sign up for a 15-minute slot for you and your family to receive communion on campus. Our hope is that, with 15-minute time increments, no families will overlap with each other.
Parish Boundaries?
Though we talk more about parish registration than we do about parish boundaries these days, Church law is still based on parishes being responsible for specific territories. Because Fr. Moore wanted to limit how far he would drive to deliver communion, the parish boundaries seemed like a logical and fair way to set that limit.
Our parish boundaries can be found here.
Other notes:
- Unfortunately, we are still unable to bring communion to those living in assisted living and nursing care facilities. If you and your facility supervisors can come up with a creative way to allow us to provide communion safely, please let us know.
- Though many have suggested it, we are not allowed to offer “drive-by” communion services. Bishop Mueggenborg specifically forbade these in his guidance letter to priests on March 13.
- If you are a Sacred Heart Parishioner, Fr. Ross has his own method for distributing communion to his parishioners. Please be in touch with him directly. Because of the level of need, we need to focus specifically on Assumption parishioners with this initiative.
- Confessions can also be scheduled on Fr. Moore’s Bookings site, though we ask people to prioritize grave needs.
Fr. Moore 