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Christmas Mass COVID update


Hello Everyone! We are working hard to prepare for Christmas Masses at St. Rose. We are very excited to gather with you and your families to celebrate this important day. We also know that some of our parishioners will be a little uncomfortable gathering in a large group again, so here are some updates on how we will be celebrating this year.


Mass times: Mass on Christmas Eve will be at 6pm and 11pm in English (8pm in Spanish). Mass on Christmas Day will be at 10am. The 6pm Mass is historically are biggest and most well attended, and we will have “Overflow Seating” at the 6pm Mass in the parish center. You will be able to pray through the Mass via our Livestream and you will be able to receive Holy Communion at the Parish Center.


What other types of COVID protocols will be in place: There is still currently a mask mandate in our local parishes. Please follow this mandate. There is not currently a capacity limit in place, which means that social distancing will not be strictly followed. There is a section in the Church with strictly enforced social distancing, but it will likely fill up at the 6pm mass and 10am Mass. If social distancing is a concern of yours and you plan to attend the 6pm Mass, we encourage you to arrive very early for the special section, or be open to going to the overflow space in the parish center.


What about Music: Singing seems to be an activity that leads to super spreader events. For that reason, we are not encouraging congregational singing at this time (aside from the mass parts and the response of the psalm). When it comes to Christmas, these are hymns that people like to belt out loudly and vibrantly. While we believe most of our regular parishioners know this, there are always visitors who do things differently and for this reason, we cannot guarantee that people in the Church and people next to you will not sing. If this is a concern of yours and you plan to attend the 6pm Mass, please consider gathering in the overflow space in the parish center. The 11pm Mass will probably have enough space that this won’t be an issue. The 10am Mass is a bit uncertain.


What else should we know about Christmas Mass and COVID?: There have been thousands of Masses held in the Archdiocese of Seattle since the pandemic again, and COVID transmissions are extremely rare. To my knowledge there have only been two transmissions, and they involved people who were not following protocols. When people do follow these protocols transmissions do not seem to be happening.


Will the parish Livestream it’s Masses? Yes. We plan to Livestream our Christmas Eve Masses and, pending volunteers, we also plan to Livestream our Christmas Day Mass. You are welcome to join us from home, too.


Any other questions? Please call the parish at 360-425-4660 or email us at info@strose-longview.org and ask away.

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