Aloha friends.

It has been good to see our parishioners and some visitors at the weekend masses. This week there are a few additional updates to give. I apologize in advance for these in-house ramblings.

We continue to monitor the attendance at our masses, and our numbers continue to increase.
Depending on attendance trends this weekend, St. Mark's may need to initiate an online registration process for attending the weekend masses. If this is the case, parishioners would sign-up online each week for the mass they plan to attend. If you plan to bring visitors, you would also be able to register your friends. The church would reserve a few spots in advance for random visitors.
Please know that once we are at capacity, we cannot simply "practice aloha" and add people into the church. Once we reach capacity, no new worshippers may be admitted into the church. We must maintain physical distancing requirements, and we thank everyone for their understanding. Practicing aloha, in this case, means maintaining our COVID protocols.
We currently have room at both Sunday masses, but the number of available spaces is decreasing each week as more parishioners return. The attendance at the Saturday night mass is significantly lower than the attendance at the Sunday morning masses. We understand and sympathize with the congregation that worshipping outside is less appealing, and we know that people desire to pray in the church. The church is truly a holy and thin place.
We will continue to publish one of the Sunday morning masses online via YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and the website.
Evening Prayer is read online every Sunday at 5:00 pm via Zoom. Beginning on June 28, we will offer a Bible Study in conjunction with Sunday Evening Prayer.

For now we have been able to welcome everyone who has come. As a church we need to be proactive and make sure we can welcome everyone who comes in the future. This is my goal, and I hope it is yours too. We must also be realistic about the amount of work our volunteers can do in the background. Due to COVID, fewer of our volunteers are able to help, and yet the duties and jobs have increased exponentially due to the pandemic. This is why we are not rushing to add a fourth mass, but rather trying to redistribute numbers among the three masses currently offered. I do not wish to exhaust our volunteers.

Regardless of these challenges, worship continues to be a joy. I hope you will join us at church or online for the worship of the living God who saves us.

Blessings to you and your loved ones,
Father Paul Lillie+