St Gabriel's re-opening for public worship

Below are the arrangements for Public Worship. 
There will be 3 opportunities for Sunday's obligation.
10am Saturday will be a vigil mass for Sunday.
10am Sunday Parish Mass with sermon  (this service will be live-streamed).
3pm Sunday Parish Mass with sermon.
All the midweek masses will continue to be live-streamed for the time being.
  • We will be writing to all the congregation and making phone calls to reserve places at each mass.
  • Please be on time for the masses and be seated no later than 5 minutes before the start. We cannot begin until everyone is present and seated. Only the end chairs on each row are to be used. If a family unit wish to sit together then remove the kneelers from the chair you occupy and leave on the floor to indicate the chair needs sanitising afterwards. Where family groups sit together, be vigilant that this may compromise the 2 metre distancing and observe the 2 metre rule!
  • There will be individual mass sheets which you must take away afterwards.
  • The collection plate will be available to put your donations in at the beginning and end of mass, the plate won't be passed round during the service.
  • The masses will be 'said' services with no singing, however where possible the organ will provide incidental music. Any responses made by the congregation are to be said in your usual speaking voice, no raising of the voice please.
  • When you enter church there will be no ciborium for you to place your wafer. The priest will fill the ciborium at the altar after cleansing his hands.
  • When it comes to the distribution of Holy Communion, the stewards will indicate the order to approach the altar, please wait until you are called forward and keep to the circular routes. One side of the church will be asked to go up first. The host will be distributed by the priest at arms length and dropped into the hand to avoid physical contact. Please cup both your hands to receive the host so it doesn't drop to the floor. If you are receiving a blessing instead of Holy Communion, the priest will raise his hand toward you and impart a blessing without touching you.
  • The peace will not be shared. 
  • At any point, please do not be tempted to make any physical contact with each other by whispering greetings or tapping each other on the shoulder to say hello as you pass them. These are all things we would normally do and will feel strange especially if you haven't see each other for some time. We urge you to gather outside to greet each other and have conversations if necessary (observing the usual distancing rules).

It's vitally important that we get this right from the outset so as not to put each other at risk or the need to go back to only have live-streamed services. The local authorities will be monitoring the situation carefully for any spikes in infection and wont hesitate in returning the area to lockdown. We have done everything we can to keep everyone safe and may have to tweak our system as we go along.... we'll keep you updated if that's the case.

It will undoubtedly be very strange for all of us, however, never has the term 'celebrate' come to be more profound. It is a joy and a privilege to attend mass and we are all very much looking forwards to seeing you in Church.
God bless you
Fr Mark and Fr Richard  


St Gabriel's re-opening for private prayer

As lockdown restrictions between to ease, the first phase of re-opening our buildings begins next week. The times we have allocated are as follows:
Tuesday 11am - 12pm
Thursday 3pm - 4pm
  • The main church door will be open as will the glass doors in the Narthex and the side aisle doors to avoid surface contact.
  • The door from the car-park will be locked and the toilets out of use. Entry from the Narthex is strictly through the main Narthex door and exiting the church will be via the side-aisle doors back into the Narthex.
  • Hand gel will be provided which must be used.
  • We recognise that it will be your natural instinct to chat with each other, please don't stand in groups to do this.
  • Seating will be allocated for you to sit. Even if you are there as a household, please sit separately. Observing this will make it easier and quicker to be cleaned afterwards.
**APPEAL**
We need teams of between 2-4 people to cleanse the areas after each of the times the church is opened. Please get in touch with Fr Mark, Fr Richard or Pam Wade if you are willing to assist with cleaning the building after each session. Without cleaning volunteers we cannot make this work. If you are isolating or showing any signs of illness then please stay at home.
Live-streamed services
To join any of our live-streamed services please go to our facebook page by clicking the link to the right.
Help with shopping or prescriptions
If you or a somebody you know needs help to get shopping or to collect a prescription then please call Aisha Mosque who have a band of volunteers (including Fr Mark and Fr Richard) who are happy to do this for you. The contact number is as follows:
01922​ 620982  (option 5)
Mass on a weekday
Masses will be celebrated Monday to Saturday at either 10am or 11am, the times are posted on the parish facebook page
Pastoral Calls
Hopefully we have covered everyone at St Gabriel's and somebody is calling you once or twice a week to catch up, have a natter and see if you're OK. Fr's Mark & Richard are also phoning everyone periodically so we can keep in touch until we all meet again. If you know of someone who has not been called and is not on the list, please ask their permission first and pass on their contact details to Fr Mark or Fr Richard.
Eid Mubarak
Fr Mark joined the congregation outside the Mosque (socially distanced) at 1.15pm and Fr Richard did the same at 7.30pm to hear the call to prayer which the council has granted to the mosque to proclaim publicly (normally done through a radio signal).
As a Parish, we have also sent gifts for the volunteers who have been supporting the vulnerable people of Walsall through the lockdown period.