Vancouver’s first ‘online parish,’ and other creative responses to COVID-19

For the first time this weekend, Father Paul Goo will celebrate Mass online.

The vocations director for the Archdiocese of Vancouver is planning to don his vestments, prepare a camera, and set up for Mass in a small chapel in front of as many as 190 participants March 21.

“It’s something I would not have considered before this crisis,” Father Goo told The B.C. Catholic, but the COVID-19 outbreak “is forcing people to think creatively and come up with new ways we haven’t really considered before.”

He won’t be doing it alone. The virtual Mass is being planned at the request of an online community of Catholic Christian Outreach members and other young adults who have been praying the Rosary together daily at 9:30 p.m. using Zoom, a video conferencing service.

Member Anna Guze said the virtual Rosary has been incredibly fruitful for students and others who have been taking classes online or working from home.

“We can really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and Mother Mary’s intercession as we pray together,” she said. “The sense of community and belonging is so wonderful and is really impacting us to stay focused on God during this difficult time.”

When Father Goo tuned into the online Rosary, he found a cheerful community of Catholics banding together despite trying times. He was surprised to find some singing and playing musical instruments during these conference calls.

“There is this sense that we are coming together to pray as a family,” he said. It feels odd, at first, to pray in front of a computer screen, but “that fades away and there is a real sense of community that comes about.”

One of the young adults asked him to celebrate Mass online, and he agreed. They immediately began coordinating their own small choir, lectors, and jokingly calling themselves “Vancouver’s Zoom parish.” Guze even offered to become their “parish secretary” and send out regular announcements.

Coping with restrictions

“Vancouver’s Zoom parish” is one of many ways Catholic groups are trying to connect spiritually while being physically distant during this health emergency.

Health officials in B.C. have set limits on public gatherings, audiences to no more than 50 people in a room. Participants must be spaced 1-2 metres apart, and everyone must avoid hugs, handshakes, or other physical contact. Those limits, along with warnings for people over the age of 65 or with compromised immune systems as being especially vulnerable to COVID-19, have many people avoiding Mass altogether. Archbishop J. Michael Miller lifted the obligation for Vancouver Catholics to attend Sunday Mass last weekend.

Holy Rosary Cathedral, St. Joseph the Worker Parish in Richmond, and St. Luke’s Parish in Maple Ridge are all offering live video feeds of Masses for those who are quarantined, in self-isolation, or otherwise unable to get to church on Sunday. The live streamed Mass at St. Joseph the Worker last week was viewed by more than 2,000 people.

Meanwhile, St. Patrick’s Parish in Vancouver found that while it couldn’t host a large celebration on St. Patrick’s Day March 17, it could do something else for the community: offer free hand sanitizer.

“Honestly, I was thinking of it as an evangelism tool,” said pastor Father James Hughes, who made 125 containers of homemade hand sanitizer using aloe vera gel and rubbing alcohol.

Parish secretary Magda Kasprzak then designed green labels with images of St. Patrick on them, and the to-go containers were set out on Main Street with prayer cards for passersby to pick up.

“Numbers are way down” at Mass, said Father Hughes, and though the parish office had to be closed March 19 and all parish events apart from Mass have been cancelled, he hoped the small gesture would remind people that the Church is there for them. As the label on the sanitizer read: “We’ve got you covered, for virus and sin.”

Moving online

Other events have also been cancelled due to the latest restrictions imposed by the government. L’Arche Greater Vancouver, which serves people with developmental disabilities, has suspended all gatherings in view of the health of the vulnerable people they work with and asked visitors to make phone calls or send emails instead of arriving on their doorstep.

“Even though we are not able to be together on Wednesdays for our community prayer, or with our usual church families on Sunday mornings, we will observe a sacred hour of prayer and reflection in our homes so that we can be together in spirit during those times,” said a press release March 18.

L’Arche invites supporters and friends of the community to pray with them during those “sacred hours,” from wherever they are, on Wednesdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, the Knights of Columbus of B.C. and Yukon, who were expecting about 350 attendees at their annual general meeting April 24-26, have cancelled that event in favour of a “virtual convention” April 25.

A Knights council in Cloverdale is cancelling smaller in-person meetings until further notice to prevent the spread of the virus, although program coordinator Matthew Klaponski is urging members to “leave no Knight – or neighbour – behind,” during the health crisis.

“If members of your council or community are elderly or have underlying medical conditions, please ensure that they have enough food,” he said, asking Knights to offer to shop online on behalf of those who can’t leave their homes.

Classes suspended; young travellers stranded

Young people in the Archdiocese of Vancouver have also been dramatically affected by the new coronavirus. St. Francis of Assisi and Notre Dame Secondary schools were closed March 11 after Vancouver Coastal Health notified the school that a parent connected with St. Francis of Assisi had tested positive for COVID-19.

Classes at all Catholic schools – now suspended for spring break – will resume afterward, but not in person. Teachers and the Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese are working hard to find ways to teach their students from a distance.

“Our students will not be in our schools after spring break,” said superintendent Deacon Henk Luyten, but his office is working with the Ministries of Education and Health “to be ready for student learning,” whatever form that may take, once classes resume.

Spring is also a popular time for school trips, and students from St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary who travelled to Belize on a mission trip recently found upon their return March 17 they would have to spend the next two weeks in self-isolation.

Meanwhile, 12 students and 3 teachers from Vancouver College are still stranded in Peru after that country cancelled all flights to try to contain the spread of COVID-19.

“Stay positive, take care of each other,” principal Johnny Bevacqua told the stranded group in a March 18 tweet. “Your families and community are doing all we can to get you back ASAP.”

NET missionaries, who serve in schools, parishes, and youth groups across Canada, have also all been recalled to their home base in Ottawa as of March 17.

“It was a hard decision,” said executive director Pierre O’Reilly. “While our teams will no longer be on location, we are making plans to provide ongoing support and ministry remotely to those communities we have been involved in.” Details about those plans are to be unveiled in the next few weeks.

Staying informed

As the situation evolves, more statements from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, B.C. health officials, and Archbishop Miller will continue to be released. It’s a challenge, but necessary, to stay informed says Mike Cooke, the editor of the St. Clare of Assisi Parish newsletter.

“There is so much misinformation out there,” said Cooke, who has been sending out the monthly newsletter for the parish for years. Once COVID-19 began making daily headlines, he obtained permission from his pastor to send daily updates. The number of people reading his newsletter is rising.

“Many of us in-the-pew Catholics see ourselves as parishioners rather than members of a global Church,” he said. “I try to convey information that lets people know we are small cogs in a very large machine,” and with that, along with the right information, they see “there is a spiritual aspect to all of this.”

Some parishes, in response to restrictions on the number of people allowed in church at one time, have responded by offering additional Sunday Mass times.

Father Patrick Tepoorten of Church of the Assumption in Powell River announced he was adding four Masses to the regular weekend schedule, as has Father Ronald Thompson of Our Lady of the Assumption in Port Coquitlam.

To accommodate that many Masses in a short span of time, liturgies are being shortened by omitting the procession, recession, choir, altar servers, and prayers of the faithful.

With the situation rapidly changing, parishioners are advised to check with local parishes to learn about Mass times and ways to connect spiritually – whether in person or online.

Meanwhile in B.C., the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, the Salvation Army, and Village Church have cancelled all in-person Sunday services, while local Jewish communities are considering how to celebrate Passover this year.

Related: