Places of worship allowed to reopen after lockdown
Places of worship across East Kilbride are now able to welcome back their congregations.
As part of the phase 3 move to ease lockdown restrictions, congregational worship and prayer as well as religious ceremonies including weddings and funerals have recommenced.
But not all places of worship are opening, with some feeling they are not quite ready.
Rev. Anne Paton says her East Kilbride Old Parish Church is nearly ready for services, but won’t rush it.
She told the News:“While it’s now permitted for churches to be open for public worship, we in the Old Parish are not nearly there yet.
“We’ve all missed our times of worship together and no amount of Internet services and coffee gatherings have come near to the fellowship we love to share with each other.
“But when it comes to public worship, we’re not nearly there yet. The Church of Scotland, as the established church in the land, cannot turn anyone away from a public service.
“This applies to all services, including weddings and funerals.”
Physical distancing guidelines will remain in place limiting the number of people who can attend and strict hygiene measures will also need to be followed.
That means a maximum of 50 people can attend a service of worship, and a maximum of 20 can attend a funeral or a wedding.
Anne added:“And as our normal Sunday attendance is over two hundred, how do we decide who the‘lucky’40 people are?
“If we were to return right now to holding services of worship, most of our folks would be excluded.
“They might exclude themselves as they are too cautious to come into a gathering, or we might have to exclude them as we’ve reached the limit of fifty people.
“So the answer to the question‘are we nearly there yet,’is‘not quite, but we’re working on it’.”
However, Fr. Rafal Soieszuk from St Bride’s Parish Church was excited to welcome back his congregation.
He told us:“It’s hard to believe mass was last said on feast of St Joseph on March 19.
“There would hardly have been a time in the history of the Catholic church when the public celebration of Mass was suspended.
“In these four long months the sense of shock not only with the loss of Mass but more importantly with the loss of lives in Britain. So, although it was a great hardship to be deprived of Mass, we recognised how necessary it was to safeguard our congregation.
“It’s wonderful to see the parish family pulling together and working as one as we face the challenge of these days.
“Having celebrated four public Sunday Masses last weekend there was a wonderful sense of gratitude and joy to return to Mass, to meet friends and celebrate together to our faith.
“Those unable to join us remain in our prayers and thoughts.
“We can’t sing at mass, because it increases the danger of spreading the infection, so we only play organ music.
“As well as mass there are other services we would celebrate in our church: baptisms, weddings and funerals. These have been limited as well.
“But despite these limitations, it’s wonderful we can celebrate and mark these important occasions in our lives bringing God’s blessing and presence at these sacred moments.”