Sometimes, in the face of international incidents and growing antagonism, it can be easy to let those feelings of fear or anger creep into our daily interactions. I want to assure you that we here at Saint John:
- Stay up every night worrying about the safety of all our Parish Family
- Work every day to create and foster a safe, positive, engaging and enlivening environment here on our campus for every person that steps foot on it
Every one of us has responsibilities in ensuring our environment continues to help grow love and faith. From the “if you see something, say something” mentality that applies to everything from a suspicious package to a leaking faucet, to the Crowd Management and CPR certification courses we hold here, we all can assist. There are a few considerations I would ask of you that can impact our safety and respect for each other:
- Parking: Earlier this year, I provided a clear and specific need for our Parish Family to respect the safety of each other in how we park on our campus. Unfortunately, this has continued to be an issue, even as the parking lots become less crowded. If we continue to see illegal parking in our fire lanes, which make it difficult for first responders to arrive on our campus to potentially save a life, we will be providing warnings on the vehicles not parked in designated locations. After two weeks of warnings, we will be forced to allow the police to ticket and potentially tow vehicles that continuously are parked illegally. Hopefully this will be sufficient, and we will re-introduce the warnings again for our seasonal Parish Family members, in conjunction with our new back parking-lot golf cart transportation service.
- Pre-Mass Fellowship: We are so blessed to have our Parish Family come together before Mass to greet each other, and speak about their lives before Mass. For some, it can be the highlight of their week to get to talk with friends. There are others who come early for Mass to pray and have some time for silent reflection. We want both activities to be able to happen respectfully. However, the structure and acoustics of our church building do not allow for that to occur in the same space without one impacting the other. If would like to speak to your friends before Mass, we would ask that you take those conversations into the Narthex, the “lobby” of the church, or outside if comfortable, out of respect to the Parish Family members that are praying.
These are just a few specific examples of how we can respect and care for each other in these trying times. Thank you so much for your understanding and support!