Staying Joyfully Safe and Faithfully Enriched as a Parish Family
2021 has brought along its own series of challenges, but one continuing concern for all of us is the COVID-19 Pandemic, which rages on locally here in Southwest Florida and around the world. We are blessed to be able to serve our Parish Family and the large community with many ways to engage our faith in as safe a way possible, and with the Dispensation from Attending Mass by the Bishop of Venice, Bishop Frank Dewane, we are doubly blessed to have such wonderful virtual resources as well as our dedication to providing a healthy Mass environment for those attending in person. We hope you will share these gifts with your friends, loved ones, and others you know so you can participate in our joint role to spread the joy of the love of Jesus Christ to all.
Providing the Highest Quality Online Mass Experience Possible
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is core to our faith as Catholics. It has been incredibly difficult for so many that are at risk or are concerned for their family’s health to participate in it weekly. Our priests here at Saint John are spectacular, and their messages ring true with each Gospel Reading. The music continues to be a wonderful enrichment of the Mass experience. We are in a position to be able to share the Mass to the entire world, and have been doing so since the Pandemic Response began in March. We stream our Daily Mass each weekday, and also 3 separate Masses on the weekend, with all these Masses being available on demand via various online locations. Here are a few ways to view our Mass online (or help your loved ones get to it):
Watch on Our Website
The easiest way to view our Masses is to go to our website (sjecc.com) and click on the “SJE Live Streaming Mass” Page (which can also be viewed directly as https://legacysite.sjecc.org/featured/sje-streaming-mass). If it is during one of our live time frames, it will show the live feed. If it is after the Mass concludes, it will show the On Demand version of the Mass, so you can watch it whenever you want.
Pro Tip: If you are going to watch a Mass On Demand, you will see a little white circle on the timeline of the video (see image with red highlight). Clicking that will bring you right to the start of the Mass.
Watch on your Smart TV (or Device) with the Vimeo App
Saint John the Evangelist uses Vimeo for the highest quality streaming and on demand video system available. Did you know that we can stream an 8K version to a large screen TV? The best experience for a SmartTV, or for anyone that has an AppleTV, Amazon Fire, or any other device, is to download the Vimeo Application for free from the App Store on that device. It should look like this blue “V”. Then, you can follow these steps:
- Open the Vimeo App on your device/TV
- Go to the “Search” and type in “sjecc” (you may have to select “People” to see the results)
- Choose from any of our On Demand videos, or if we are currently Live Streaming at the time you are looking at our account, you will see the Live choice as the first option.
- If you create a free Vimeo account, you can then “Follow” St. John the Evangelist, and any time we put a video up or start streaming, you will get an alert to watch.
Posting YouTube Masses
We also post our Daily Masses and the On Demand Weekend Mass on YouTube. If you already view videos via YouTube, you can subscribe to our channel by searching for “saint john the evangelist catholic church naples” (there are several other Saint John the Evangelist churches on YouTube, so look for our blue eagle logo to make sure you choose the correct one).
We currently do not stream our Masses live to YouTube due to licensing restrictions imposed by Google, even though they have our properly structured music licensing for streaming functionality.
Continue Giving to Our Parish Family Remotely
Another tool we have here at Saint John to assist our Parish Family is our online giving system. We would not be able to continue our Mission: To Know, To Love, and To Serve God in His Church and Our Community, without your generosity. And, as many of you know, we have significantly decreased our environment to allow for us to continue to operate with the constrained funds that are being donated. We completely understand the challenges we are all facing, we are facing those same difficulties ourselves. If you feel called to support our Parish Family, we have made it very easy to set up online donations at our WeShare donation portal:
https://stjohntheevangelist.weshareonline.org/
You can choose from various giving opportunities and types, including one-time or reoccurring donations.
Pro Tip: By moving your donations online, you can set up weekly, monthly or other types of reoccurring donations for your Offertory so you will never need an envelope again, even when you return to church!
Access Your Parish Registration Online
The Diocese of Venice has required all Parishes to utilize an online system for our Parish Information called ConnectNow, by a company called ParishSOFT. One great feature about this system is the ability for every family that is part of Saint John to be able to access their own information in what they call “My Own Church”. This system will enable you to change your phone number and address if you move, sign up for Youth Faith Formation, and even view your giving statements at any time. For more information on how to sign up and use My Own Church, please see our instructions on our website.
We hope that by providing these online and virtual resources, we are helping our Parish Family stay connected to our faith and our church. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please do not hesitate to ask by contacting our Business Manager, JP Boucher, at [email protected]. Please continue to stay safe and healthy and let the love our Jesus continue to fill your heart with joy and fraternity!