The Catholic parishes in Palmerston North, comprising the Holy Spirit Cathedral, Palmerston North, Our Lady of Lourdes and Foxton intended to live-stream Sunday Mass from the Cathedral.
Under the current law, up to 10 people are permitted to make up the church service.
With such a limitation, it became abundantly clear that the parishes would exclude people.
Eleanor, representing the Foxton and Shannon communities was invited to be one of ten people participating in the Cathedral as the parishes live-streamed Sunday Mass.
On Friday she wrote.
Dear Friends,
I went to Bunnings this afternoon.
There were no queues, people were walking freely in and out of the store, shopping at close proximity to one another and then it dawned on me what Jacinda was doing.
It is not only unpractical but cruel, and now we are presenting this same model to our parishioners.
Imagine a parish of 200 people where only ten can enter the church at a time with restrictions, which means that parishioners must now scramble to get into their own church.
When the Mass was in the presbytery it was beautiful because it looked like a family saying Mass together but if we are going to have a Mass in the Cathedral or church with only a selected few and all the other parishioners excluded, Jacinda would succeed in humiliating us as a worshipping community.
Thank you for asking me to come, but in light of what I experienced today, I have to decline.
God bless us all
Eleanor
Mass from the Cathedral with just ten people was cancelled however continued as it was during lockdown, live-streamed from the confines of the Cathedral Presbytery.
- The Cathedral, Palmerston North, Our Lady of Lourdes and Foxton parishes