Our parish has offered the Eucharist in four different settings to meet the needs of our community: indoor, outdoor, drive-in, and live-streamed. Based on our recent attendance data, many parishioners seem to prefer either the outdoor or drive-in celebration if they have a choice. It's similar in other parishes. The drive-in liturgy is helpful to parents with small children, and easy for those who would like to join us without the need for reservation.
The drive-in Mass at 11:00 am on Easter Sunday drew 180+ people (in about 80 vehicles) - double the typical number of in-car participants in past weeks. Many were happy to be there on Easter Sunday. It was also an opportunity to invite passers-by to our church. That's part of the church mission: to invite more people to our Lord, not simply to minister to those in our community. The drive-in Mass is now back to 5:00 pm on Saturdays.
We all want to go back to church for the Eucharistic celebration. Yet, Worner Hall at this point is our preference for several reasons: better airflow and ventilation, greater seating capacity, easy chair arrangements, and simple sanitization, etc. At the same time, we are prepared to offer the Mass in church when the time is right (if vaccinations pick up pace and the infection rate is down).
We are grateful to our faithful volunteers who help with the check-in and sanitizing, and the dedicated Parish Pandemic Task Force. The team meets every week to ensure that we are prepared for constant changes during this pandemic. God bless them for their service.