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Over the past few years, parishes have been asked to take a look at the number of Masses celebrated on the weekend in light of the attendance and ask ourselves whether we need all the Masses we have on the weekend (Saturday evening and Sunday). A number of years ago the former Vicar General as well as the previous Chancellor of the Archdiocese Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo and a group of advisory pastors developed a scale that, of course, once taken into account, might determine the appropriate number of Masses:
- The size of the parish
- Average weekly attendance
- The capacity of the parish church
- Other variables, like the number of Masses where the church is regularly less than one half full
- Spacing Masses 90 minutes apart, avoiding hasty celebrations.
The Office of Strategic Pastoral Planning has given us the goal of working for the vibrancy of parish life in the Archdiocese. Over the past five years, St. Augustine’s Church has experienced a drop in Mass attendance at all Masses. This experience is true at almost all parishes in the Archdiocese of NY. In a church that holds 600+ people, there is rarely a Sunday Mass where there are more than 300 parishioners present. In light of this average weekly attendance and the capacity of the church, it is obvious that something has to change in the way we worship each Sunday.
For the past two summers, we instituted a changed summer weekday schedule as well as a changed Sunday Mass schedule. These changes have worked very well. This year we will extend the time for these changes. The summer Mass schedule both for weekdays and Sunday will begin on Sunday, June 30 and will continue to the end of the year.
Starting June 30th the new Mass schedule will be as follows:
- Monday thru Saturday mornings at 9 AM
- Saturday evening at 5 pm
- Sunday at 9 AM, 10:30 AM, and 12 Noon.
Schedules are never permanent and can be changed in the future as need demands. While this new schedule may be inconvenient to some, it is being instituted with the idea of improving the quality of our worship, not simply holding on to the same quantity of Masses.
