{"id":2251,"date":"2021-01-07T19:21:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/?p=2251"},"modified":"2021-01-07T19:21:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T19:21:44","slug":"thursday-7th-january-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/?p=2251","title":{"rendered":"THURSDAY 7th JANUARY 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following announcements on Thursday 7th January 2021 all Public Worship has been stopped.<\/h3>\n

In St Agnes’ Parish Fr Thomas will continue to celebrate Mass but behind closed doors as instructed by the Diocese. \u00a0These Masses will be broadcast on the Parish Radio and Fr Thomas will keep us informed of any further developments.<\/h3>\n

The Church will be open for private prayer from 10.30am until 2pm.
\nWhen visiting the Church it is necessary to sanitize hands,
\nwipe the seats \u00a0and follow the one-way system.
\nThe wearing of face masks is COMPULSORY in the Church.
\nThe full text of the Bishops’ letter is below.<\/h3>\n

Statement from the Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland
\n\u201cAs many people as possible stay at home<\/em> for the sake of health, life and the Common Good\u201d<\/strong><\/h5>\n

7 January 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Following further briefing today by the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer, and in consultation with The Executive Office, we are very concerned at the current serious public health position in which Northern Ireland finds itself: with the extremely high level of transmission of the Covid-19 virus; the continuing escalation of numbers in hospital and intensive care; the number of associated deaths; and, the increasingly unsustainable pressure on our healthcare staff.\u00a0 The clear message from health officials is that this situation is going to worsen significantly over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

We recognise the efforts of so many in our parishes who have been working to ensure that our gatherings for public worship are as safe as possible and we welcome the continuing engagement between the faith communities and the NI Executive which has led to consensus between us on the importance of people being able to gather in person for worship.\u00a0 At this time, however, we acknowledge and support the unequivocal message from public health authorities that the movement and gathering of people should be minimised and that as many people as possible stay at home<\/em> for the sake of health, life and the Common Good.<\/p>\n

In light of our ongoing consultations and of the current serious and worsening situation, and in line with clear public health guidance that people should stay at home<\/em>, we have decided that for a limited period (from midnight on Thursday 7 January until Saturday 6 February 2021, subject to review in late January), the celebration of the Eucharist and other liturgies should take place without the physical presence of the faithful – with the exception of marriage, funeral, baptismal liturgies and drive-in services (subject to regulations).\u00a0 Arrangements for recording and\/or livestreaming, and making individual visits for private prayer are also permissible in accordance with regulations.\u00a0 We encourage parishes, where possible, to continue to broadcast the celebration of Mass – and other devotions and prayer services – online and on other media, knowing that faith and prayer can be a tremendous support to individuals and society during these difficult times.<\/p>\n

We make this decision reluctantly, conscious that not being able to gather for public worship can cause pain for all the faithful, but in the hope that this limited period of sacrifice will be for the protection of life and health and for the greater good of all.\u00a0 We once more ask for prayers for the sick, the bereaved and all those whose livelihoods have been particularly impacted by the pandemic.\u00a0 We keep in our prayers all health workers, carers, chaplains and other essential workers.\u00a0 We welcome the announcement that a similar position is being taken by the leaders of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Methodist Church in Ireland and many other denominations and faith communities in response to the unequivocal message from public health authorities that as many people as possible stay at home at this time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most Rev Eamon Martin DD \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Archbishop of Armagh & Primate of All-Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

Apostolic Administrator of Dromore <\/em><\/p>\n

Most Rev Noel Treanor DD <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bishop of Down and Connor <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most Rev Donal McKeown DD <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bishop of Derry <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most Rev Larry Duffy DD <\/strong><\/p>\n

Bishop of Clogher <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most Rev Michael Router DD <\/strong><\/p>\n

Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following announcements on Thursday 7th January 2021 all Public Worship has been stopped. In St Agnes’ Parish Fr Thomas will continue to celebrate Mass but behind closed doors as instructed by the Diocese. \u00a0These Masses will be broadcast on the Parish Radio and Fr Thomas will keep us informed of any further developments. The Church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2251"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2254,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2251\/revisions\/2254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stagnesbelfast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}