Back-to-school plans for the Seminary of Christ the King may look different from other local schools, but they follow the same principles.
Thirty-three high school students and 20 college students are planning to start classes on campus in Mission this fall. Father Benedict Lefebvre, prior of Westminster Abbey, said the seminary is following all the provincial guidelines for going back to class in the COVID-19 pandemic, but some are to be applied differently because it is a boarding school.
For example, all seminarians will have to participate in a two week “quarantine” period upon arrival, during which they will have to observe physical distancing and wear masks in any situation where they cannot keep two metres apart. They will also assess themselves for virus symptoms daily.
“At the moment, the monastic community is a bubble because we all live here and no one has COVID,” said Father Lefebvre. “Until (the seminarians) have had the two weeks on campus, we don’t know that for sure of them.”
He said all members of the community will still have joint meals and liturgies, but extra sanitizing, distancing, and other measures will be in place. Thankfully, he said, the large Abbey church makes keeping apart easy.
After two weeks with no signs of sickness, seminary students will be considered part of the same bubble as everyone else living at Westminster Abbey.
High schools have a mandate from the B.C. Ministry of Education to divide students and teachers into learning groups or “cohorts” of no more than 120 people. With a total of 80 students and monks living at Westminster Abbey, they will easily fall into one cohort.
It’s life off campus that gets more complicated. Monthly home visits are cancelled for the foreseeable future, said Father Lefebvre. Alternatives are being considered, such as inviting families to visit the seminary, “but possibly in the gym or something like that where they can keep the distancing,” he said.
“A seminarian can’t hug his mom and dad … it’s an oddity introduced by the situation.”
Longer home visits for Christmas and Easter will still be permitted, but it’s likely the students will have to quarantine again upon their return to be reintroduced into the abbey’s bubble.
“One consideration is the elderly monks,” Father Lefebvre said. “They are the ones that get hit (by the virus) the hardest.”
He acknowledged government restrictions are constantly changing, and the seminary will update its practices as needed. Meanwhile, for him, the important part is that students are in class, not tuning in to lessons online.
“The main conviction is that formation is best when it’s on campus,” said Father Lefebvre. “Community life is so formative. We are together for liturgy, for classes, for common activities … You just don’t get that when you have classes online and you are just in your room at home.”
Father Stephen Hero, rector of St. Joseph Seminary in Edmonton, shared similar sentiments about the 32 seminarians and six teaching priests gathering together in a formation program, along with new rules.
“It’s better for their formation to be together in person as much as possible, even if there’s going to be a different way of living together in community,” Father Hero told Grandin Media, the online news platform of the Archdiocese of Edmonton.
“At least when they’re in the building, the guys can pray together in person and can have conversations rather than being isolated.”
The grounds of Westminster Abbey are currently open to visitors, but physical distancing is in effect, hours are reduced, and the church is closed for Mass once it reaches 50 people.
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