Archbishop John Wong presided online Mass June 27 in Blessed Sacrament chapel, Sacred Heart Cathedral
By Agnes Chai
June 29 2020
KOTA KINABALU – The Archdiocese is buzzing with anticipation and excitement with the announcement of its reopening for public Masses beginning Jul 12.
Archbishop John Wong, head of KK Archdiocese, has sent out a letter to all the diocesan clergy, detailing the SOP (standard operating procedure) for the reopening of churches/chapels/places of worship by the State Government.
The SOP mandates precautionary measures such as social distancing of one meter between persons, wearing face mask, frequent washing of hands with soap, using hand sanitizer and contact tracing to prevent a second wave of the coronavirus.
Though the churches will be reopened, the Archbishop informed that not everyone would be able to attend Mass as the churches are allowed to operate with a capacity of one third. He called for cooperation and understanding of the faithful so that the churches could reopen smoothly and with the greatest care and precaution to protect the people.
Towards this end, he announced that several Masses would be arranged to cater for the small number allowed according to the individual parish priest.
For example, the schedule for Masses for Sacred Heart Cathedral and the sub-parish of Church of Mary Immaculate is as follows:
SHC
Sunday 7.00 am – Chinese
Sunday 10.30 am – English
Sunday 2.00 pm – BM
Daily Mass 6.00 am – English
CMI
Sunday 8.00 am – English
Sunday 11.00 am – Chinese
Daily Mass 6.30 am – English
To enable those who could not attend Mass in church, live streamed Mass will continue to be broadcasted from SHC as follows:
Saturday 6.30 pm – English
Sunday 8.00 am – Chinese
Sunday 9.30 am – BM
Daily Mass 6.30 am – English
To enable parishioners to attend Mass, SHC and CMI have worked out a system of registration and coupon. From Jul 2-10, daily at 9.30 am-11.30 am, and 2.00 pm-4.00 pm, the parish office will be opened for registration. It will be on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Parish priest Fr Paul Lo explained the system based on the allowed capacity for SHC (380) and CMI (300). The first (1-380) who registered will be given a coupon as a Sunday Mass Pass to use before entering for Mass on Jul 12. The next (381-760) will be given coupon for Mass on Jul 19. And the system will carry on until everyone has attended the first round. Then the next round repeats all over. The same goes for CMI.
In compliance with the government’s SOP, only Malaysian citizen parishioners, aged 13-69 and with no chronic illnesses can attend Mass during the RMCO period.
The parish priest calls for patience, urging all to pray that the day will come soon when all could attend Mass again.
