Diocesan News
Advance Notice of Christmas Services in Cork, Cloyne and Ross
Please note that revised arrangements have been announced and are available here
Christmas approaches and, more than ever this year, in Advent and beforehand, a lot of planning is going in to the practical arrangements for our joyful celebration of the nativity of our Lord.
In spite of the challenges we all face during the Coronavirus Pandemic, worship at Christmas remains the focus and at the heart of all the planning. In addition to the Church Services listed below, there are many opportunities to join acts of worship online from your home.
Online Services – live and recorded – from Cork, Cloyne and Ross, are listed here.
Listed at this link – Cathedrals first, and then parish by parish and chaplaincies – is the schedule of Services planned in the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the First Sunday of Christmas this year: 2020.
It is a challenging Christmas to organise as each local setting is obliged to take account of all the regulations published recently by the Government concerning Religious Services. You can read those regulations here.
The HSE has issued detailed guidance and it is here.
Numbers permitted in church buildings, with social distancing, are limited, and it is a requirement that the ‘numbers permitted to attend’ be displayed at the entrance of church buildings. Those numbers are publicised in relation to each church building in this list also for your information.
Consultations locally have resulted in decisions as to whether or not places should be on a first come basis, or if booking is possible or required.
Speaking about the arrangements, the Bishop, Dr Paul Colton said: “All of this is necessary in the context of the Coronavirus pandemic, but it is also heart–breaking for clergy and parishioners to have to limit the numbers attending Church. It goes totally against the grain. The instinct of our vocation and our approach is always open–armed and to say “All are welcome’ .
“The Coronavirus is even thwarting that this year. It is new but it is not normal.
“‘Booking’ for church also goes completely against the grain, but pragmatic approaches have had to be found locally by clergy in consultation with the people of the parishes about how best to face up to the limits that have been imposed by the Level 3 regulations.
“I ask everyone to cooperate with the voluntary churchwardens and stewards without whom it would not be possible to hold public worship at all this Christmas. In thanking them I thank also all the volunteers in our parishes, not least those who will do the cleaning between the extra Services as required by the regulations.
“I appeal to everyone, therefore, to understand and to work within the challenges faced by parishes and to see the practical dilemmas being worked through as part of our solidarity to ‘protect each other’ and to ‘stay safe’ as we continue to fight this virus together.”
Unless otherwise stated the Service in each case is a celebration of Holy Communion/The Holy Eucharist.
Where the Service is Holy Communion by Extension (the sacrament being brought to a church for distribution by a Deacon or licensed lay person from a previous celebration of Holy Communion) this too is indicated.
Diocesan Media & Information Technology Officer
087 7055 989
Ms Denise Stobart
media@corkchurchofireland.com