Services without celebration of the Eucharist

No public services have been held since March 17 due to the corona pandemic. This is now changing. From the coming weekend (May 9th and 10th) the parish of St. Franziskus am Steigerwald will once again hold services in the parish churches of Gerolzhofen, Frankenwinheim, Oberschwarzach, Brnnstadt, Llsfeld and Schallfeld – but with strict precautionary measures.

In the diocese of Wrzburg, after a decision by Bishop Franz Jung, there will initially be no masses with Eucharistic celebrations. At first, only non-ecclesiastical forms of worship are allowed: Easter morning and evening praise, May prayer, Pentecost novena, hours of worship and Pentecost organ showers. There will be no altar servers.

Polemic discussions

He takes the state recommendation from the Bavarian Ministry of Health seriously, said Bishop Jung on Thursday at the request of the Catholic News Agency (KNA) in Wrzburg. As a bishop, he was also responsible for the health of believers. Jung rumored that the decision not to hold any Eucharistic celebrations was “very controversial, emotional and also polemical” in his diocese. However, this is not surprising given the importance of the Eucharist for church life. However, many pastors in conversations would have given him relief that they would not have to do things that they could not support.

“I don’t want a second contagion wave due to the church’s rush,” said the Bishop of the KNA. That is why he decided on a “gradual return” for the limited resumption of public services. In the diocese of Wrzburg, for the time being there will only be word services without communion. Jung said that the requirements alone were “enormous”. In addition, he is concerned with “the integrity of the liturgical celebration”, which could be damaged by the requirements, for example from the use of disposable gloves to the failure to use the peace green.

Determining the places

Pastor Stefan Mai has now implemented the following rules for the parish community of St. Francis: In church pews, worshipers must keep a distance of at least two meters. This results in the maximum number of seats that can be occupied. The places in the parish churches are currently marked in color for worshipers. Only one person is allowed to sit in each seat. Family members with a shared apartment are not obliged to adhere to the distance rule.

Members of the various parishioners have agreed to act as a folder before the services and to instruct the places. This is to ensure that the minimum distance of two meters is maintained. The appropriate note: The insistence on old regular places is inadmissible.

Hygiene regulations

There must be a distance of at least two meters at the entrance to the church when queuing. The entrance door of the church is constantly open so that nobody has to touch the handles when entering.

For the protection of believers, people may not attend the service if they have non-specific general symptoms, fever or respiratory problems, are infected or quarantined, or have had contact with someone with Covid-19 in the past fortnight. During the service, visitors must wear a mouth-and-nose cover.

Don’t sing songs, but hum

Singing together naturally poses a special risk of droplet infection. Therefore, the organ will play, but it should not be sung. Pastor Stefan Mai wants to try an experiment: the songs are to be hummed together.

At the end of the service, the participants leave the church one after the other in accordance with the spacing rules for the predetermined exit doors that remain open when leaving the church, so that no one has to take a handle on leaving the church. No gatherings may be formed in front of the church and the rules on distance must be observed.