New Weekend Mass Safety Procedure

New Weekend Mass Safety Procedure

At St. Thomas the Apostle, the safety of our parishioners is always a priority. In today’s world, many churches have adopted simple safety practices during worship, and after consultation and planning we will begin implementing one here as well.

Beginning Easter weekend, the all church doors will be locked approximately 15 minutes after the start of each weekend Mass. This step follows best practices used by many parishes to help ensure a safe and peaceful environment while we gather for worship.

Please know that this is not meant to keep any parishioners, or those wishing to join us for worship, out. We understand that life happens: traffic, family needs, and busy schedules sometimes make us late. If you arrive after the doors are locked, simply knock, and an usher will let you in.

To make this even easier, we have added a monitor in the ushers’ closet connected to cameras at the church entrances. This allows the ushers to see when someone is approaching and open the door for you, often before you even need to knock. Our goal is to balance two important values: keeping our parish community safe while remaining welcoming and accessible to all.

You may notice that school Masses already follow a similar practice, with doors locked at the start in order to help ensure the safety of our students. Many parishioners who attend those liturgies are already familiar with this procedure. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us continue to make St. Thomas the Apostle a safe and welcoming place of prayer for everyone.