Christ the King Parish

Dear Northeast KCK Catholics,

Greetings to you, our faithful parishioners! I am writing to update you on the gradual process of reopening our churches to the faithful. We had previously released some guidelines online, but we wanted to make sure this information (and this update) reached all the households in our parishes.

On Friday, 22 May, Governor Kelly lifted restrictions on mass gatherings, and Wyandotte County moved into Phase Two of our reopening plan. This has enabled us to resume something like normalcy in our parishes. We are still being careful about sanitizing pews and minimizing contact, but the limits on numbers in attendance at Mass are no longer a factor for us. The only limit on occupancy in church is that each household maintain 6 feet of distance from others. Our weekend Mass schedule will now be:

Saturday

4 p.m. Christ the King (English)
6 p.m. Blessed Sacrament (Spanish)

Sunday

7:30 a.m. Blessed Sacrament (English *** note time change ***)
9:30 a.m. Christ the King (English)
10 a.m. Blessed Sacrament (Spanish *** note time change ***)
11:30 a.m. Our Lady & St. Rose (English *** note time change ***)

The time changes on Sundays will allow for sanitization between services, and hopefully give me a little more time to visit with parishioners on Sundays! Please note that Catholics in our Archdiocese continue to be dispensed from the obligation to attend Sunday Mass (but of course, not dispensed from keeping the Lord’s Day holy through prayer, family time, and rest from work).

Confessions will continue to be offered at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays at Blessed Sacrament, 3:15 p.m. on Saturdays at Christ the King, and 5 p.m. on Saturdays at Blessed Sacrament—our normal schedule.

In May, we increased the number of weekday Masses to distribute attendance throughout the week. As the weekend schedule returns to normal, these Masses are no longer needed, and we will be returning to our previous schedule, effective Monday, 8 June 2020.

Blessed Sacrament

Tuesdays 6 p.m. (Spanish)
Thursdays 8:30am (English) & 6 p.m. (Spanish)

Christ the King

Mondays 5:30 p.m.
Tuesdays-Fridays 8:30 a.m.

We will continue to trace contacts for notification purposes of those who may have been exposed to the virus in church. We are taking down names and contact information at the entrance for those attending each Mass. The only purpose of this list is for us to inform parishioners when someone at a Mass they attended was infected. This will also allow us to update our parish records, many of which are long outdated (as we discovered while attempting to reach out to you these past few months). Once you have updated your contact information, only the names of those in attendance are necessary to be recorded on subsequent visits to the church.

A Reminder to the Vulnerable

Please abide by common sense when deciding whether or not to come to Mass, especially those who are over 60 years of age, those with existing health conditions, and those whose immune systems are weakened or compromised. Please consider staying away from Mass for a while longer if you fall in these categories or share a home with anyone who does. Of course, no one with any symptoms of any illness should attend Mass at this time—the symptoms of coronavirus vary widely in severity and type, and you may not know you have it. I can personally attest to this, having recovered from a case of coronavirus just after Easter!

Participation at Mass

During the Mass itself, the Archbishop has asked the following of the faithful:

• Purify hands with provided sanitizer before entering the church, and as you exit
• Wear a mask, covering the mouth and nose, prior to entering the church until after leaving the church
• There will be no collection—contributions should be placed in the offertory basket at the entrance to the church
• Avoid all close contact with individuals who are not members of your household
• Except for those who live in the same house, individuals must observe a minimum of six-foot spacing from other individuals or household groups
• Congregational singing is temporarily suspended to prevent droplet spread, and no hymnals/missalettes will be available (thankfully our upgraded sound systems will allow music and spoken words be much more easily heard)
• For the distribution of Holy Communion:
  • Approach the minister of communion in single file
  • Receive the host in your hand and consume it without touching your face or mouth
  • Those wishing to receive on the tongue will be able to do so with a designated minister who will only distribute on the tongue and whose hands will be sanitized after each communicant
• At the conclusion of Mass, disperse at intervals, without congregating inside the exits of the church
  • At Blessed Sacrament, use only the main doors in the rear of the church to enter and exit, not the side door.

Furthermore, we appreciate able-bodied volunteers who will be able to remain and assist with the sanitization of pews, door handles, and bathrooms after the conclusion of each Mass.

If you would like to review the directives of Archbishop Naumann in full, you may do so at:

https://archkcks.com/coronavirus/resuming-mass

There are also helpful videos in English and Spanish explaining our special practices during this reopening phase. Please also consult the statewide reopening plan, which we will be following. You can find it at:     https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information

In conclusion, I wish to honor Archbishop Naumann and other church leaders for crafting these practices that allow for a swift restart of public worship. I also want to acknowledge the governor of Kansas, and our mayor, for their wisdom in recognizing the importance of public worship. Let’s also remember that very little was known about this virus two months ago; our knowledge has grown, our predictions have been modified, and we can proceed with confidence that we can protect the vulnerable while putting first things first, practicing our faith, and striving to bring prosperity to our community. Above all, we need not live in fear, especially while the Lord is near!

As we first began to shelter in place, I quoted from an essay by Ephraim Radner that we could regard this as time of Jubilee—a biblical tradition that took place every 49 years, when God commanded the Israelites to go to their homes in joy, live with their families, forgive debts, return ancestral property, and let the land rest. Radner recently wrote again in terms I found especially helpful and hopeful:

As the virus recedes, or at least as governments stumble to grasp some forms of social normalcy in the weeks ahead, churches are perhaps called to be the foremost witnesses to the fact that we can come together again responsibly, and that such coming together is the very virtue of our lives. We have argued now for weeks about whether we can celebrate the Eucharist as a people; and now we must show the larger civil society that it is possible to do so. This will be a vanguard sign to our neighbors that human life has not been banished to the corners of our bedrooms, whose walls are vaguely tinted by the quivering shadows of the Internet.

This holy season of Easter is passing far too swiftly, and I am eager to be with you all again around the Lord’s table to give thanks for the gift of resurrection hope. I remain

Your servant in the Lord,

Father Nick Blaha

(913) 321-1958 | Blessed Sacrament
(913) 287-8823 | Christ the King
Telegram: @revnb

[email protected]
2203 Parallel Ave
Kansas City, KS 66104