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Father Craig Dunford of St Lukes Catholic Church on Te Irirangi Dr says they resumed mass on Sunday and in order to accommodate the numbers, they added extra masses every hour — from 8am-12pm.

The last time they did a mass count in November, they had more than 1400 churchgoers attending over three masses.

“The liturgy was a short mass that was held in the Sancta Maria College Chapel as we are currently building our new church on Chapel Road. A lot of our parishioners were in tears because they couldn’t come to church for a long time. It has been a difficult time as the church is an essential pillar of their lives.”

To monitor the movement of worshippers they were asked to sign in and enter from one door and exit from the other.

Rev Warner Wilder of St Paul’s in the Park says that they have decided not to resume church service just yet.

“We had a recent vestry meeting to discuss the lifting of restrictions on numbers and decided not to meet as a congregation this Sunday. We want to ease into it and make sure we do it properly. Besides, there is still reluctance amongst many of the congregation to meet in large groups which I can understand.

“For our YouTube clip this week, we met in the church with all those taking part. It is part of our transition back into the church for worship. Being Pentecost Sunday, we made it a little special.

Rev Warner says that while they will be resuming normal worship quite soon, singing might not be encouraged “though lack of singing would hardly lend itself to a meaningful worship experience”.

Father John Fitzmaurice parish priest of Our Lady, Star of the Sea Catholic Parish in Picton Street, Howick said the parish advisory body held a planning meeting on Thursday night to prepare for the first weekend back. He says that parishioners were overjoyed that they could begin celebrating mass together again on the weekend.

“Our normal weekday masses resumed on Monday. For Christians, Sunday was the Feast of Pentecostthe coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. It’s a beautiful day to begin again.

Being restricted to no more than 100 people at an worship gathering, they temporarily introduced two additional masses on Saturday 5pm and Sunday 11am, in additional to the usual Sunday programme of four masses.

“This is so we can make our Church both safe and hospitable as we return home to the parish Church we love,” says Father John.

Parishioners were emailed to advise of the Sunday mass times, and social distancing, hygiene, and contact tracing requirements.

Some services resume

Billions of taxpayers’ money right now is being used to prop up wages and dampen the impacts. It’s not sustainable long term, but crucial right now.

The annual burden of rates levied by councils will soon also add to increased costs for everyone as councils around the country signal their continued plan to increase rates.

I recently proposed in Parliament that we should use legislation to step in to help households and businesses struggling with dayto-day costs by legislating for a rates freeze.

At no time in recent history have ratepayers needed more relief from annual rates increases than now. Just as most other entities are going through the process of reassessing costs within their organisations, local authorities also need to review how they finance and debt-fund essential work.

Rev Brett Jones, lead pastor cession community and executive member of the East Auckland Ministers Association, says that on Sunday churches of Howick offered a safe, warm experience of exploring spiritual connection with God.

“Churches are excited to be able to see each other in person just as families of all shapes and sizes have enjoyed reconnecting with people close to them,” he says.

“Community is a significant part of Christian practice and while churches have been innovative in maintaining connection through online means, this will be a meaningful time for many. The essential experience of church will be very similar but when in larger groups there will be including contact tracing, hygiene protocols and physical distancing where required.

“Adjustments have been made for some of the more up-close and personal moments such as Communion, with different methods being used to create a ‘contactless communion’ option. For some churches, the gathering limit is requiring creativity including multiple smaller services across the weekend.

“There are still a number of vulnerable people in our communities who will continue to do church online and churches are generally retaining an online presence.

“There are some churches that are taking a little longer to open to make sure they are well prepared to take care of congregations particularly where they have high percentages of vulnerable people.” V ery few households or businesses have managed to escape the financial impacts that we have experienced, and will continue to experience, off the back of Covid-19.

Organisations like the Property Council and Taxpayers Union have made similar calls for rates freezes, backed up by a petition signed by thousands.

Local government is a creature of statute so the Parliament can lead the way on rates freezes.

Leaving it to councils to make these decisions ignores the legislative problem councils face where consultation requirements will be used as an easy excuse to box on with rates increases.

It will be unpalatable to mayors and councillors for Parliament to require a rates freeze. But equally it’s unlikely ratepayers will get the relief they deserve if we just rely on councils to make that decision for themselves.

Unfortunately, so far, the National Party joined the Government and used their numbers in the House to block a rates freeze proposal. Only myself and ACT’s David Seymour voted in favour.

Delivering a rates freeze should not be a difficult issue for MPs from across the aisle to unite on before the Parliament dissolves for the election.

Jami-Lee Ross, MP for Botany OPINION

Rates freeze is needed MP for Botany Jami-Lee

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