On Easter Sunday, Father Harrison Ayre walked back into St. Peter’s Church in Nanaimo, just to gather himself after celebrating the most stressful Mass of his life. Then, just as he sat down in a pew, he heard a bang.
The improvised altar outside in the parking lot had been lifted up by the wind, turned over, and smashed into the candles, flowers, and platform where Father Ayre had just celebrated Mass.
With indoor Masses prohibited, Father Ayre had thought that on this holiest day of the year it was worth the effort to bring people together, outdoors and socially distanced inside their cars, for Mass in the parking lot. It was a huge effort for the parish, involving more than 20 volunteers.
They constructed a platform so parishioners could see the priest even from the back row of cars. They covered the platform and the plastic-table altar with a tent in case of rain. They arranged for an FM transmitter so people could hear the liturgy inside their cars. The musicians figured out how to run their microphones into the transmitter.
What they didn’t count on was the wind. Though the altar and the tent were weighted down with 45 kilogram blocks, Father Ayre still felt the need to deputize four men of the parish to hang onto the tent poles for the duration of the Mass.
It was supposed to be a test run for possible weekly parking lot Masses at St. Peter’s.
“Everyone said to me, ‘Never again, Father,’ ” Father Ayre told The Catholic Register.
It wasn’t that St. Peter’s parishioners didn’t appreciate the effort or thought the experiment too risky.
“People were touched by the herculean efforts,” he said.
In the wind, Father Ayre was sure he couldn’t be heard and cut his homily down to two minutes – a rarity for him.
“I preach quite long,” he confessed. “I get going and I can’t stop.”
After Mass people told the priest the sound in their cars was actually quite good. Parishioners appreciated the opportunity to be physically present for the consecration. After months of nothing but streamed Masses, some told him it was the “most memorable Mass they’ve ever been to.”
“It was memorable, but not for the right reasons for me,” he said.
Some might say a parking lot doesn’t qualify as a sacred space, but Father Warren Schmidt, a liturgy professor at St. Joseph’s College in Edmonton, doesn’t object. For him what’s important is the intimate, embodied nature of sacramental liturgy.
“It’s the unity of the physical space,” Father Schmidt said. “With sacramental worship, any sacrament, you celebrate it in one space – ideally.”
Father Ayre recognizes the same issue.
“There is something about that close, embodied nature of our faith that is so important,” he said.
Father Ayre continues to celebrate streamed Masses from inside St. Peter’s. Many parishioners on Sundays drive down to the parish and watch the Mass on their phones or tablets, sitting inside their cars. St. Peter’s has set up free WiFi that covers the parking lot. After Mass, Father Ayre comes out to distribute Communion to people in their cars.
He estimates he sees families in about 75 cars per week. “You can say ‘hi’ quickly. It keeps you connected with parishioners.”
The Catholic Register
