As you know, we have “counted heads” at every Mass, at each church, for the past several weeks.  The numbers have been extremely important in helping the Task Force to  consider what the requirements are in creating a Mass schedule where we are able to  accommodate the size of the community that gathers each week, while trying to minimize the impact upon the idea of having to change Mass times.  The numbers presented below reflect that attendance, and gives insight into possible growth needs.  These are real numbers, reflecting real people, and real seating capacity needs:

* numbers estimated from following weekends, as numbers were not available.

From this data the Task Force worked extremely hard to come up with all possible scenarios for a weekend Mass Schedule.  The factors that influenced the final decision included:  a.) the number of people attending each time;  b.) the seating capacity of each church; c.) the overall accessibility and condition of each church; d.) creating a schedule that one priest is able cover on any given weekend; and finally e.) responsible financial stewardship of the merging Catholic Dover parishes, especially in light of these economic times.

A schedule has been developed.  Presented first at the four parish councils at their combined meeting on April 14th for their discussion and review, it has also been shared with random small groups of parishioners at the different parishes as well as individual parishioners.  Finally it was presented for discussion at this week’s Liturgy Workgroup meeting, the first workgroup that has been convened as a working group to help facilitate the merging of ministries, programs and functions of the community.

This was extremely difficult.   There was no way to not impact a large number of people, and in some cases, the whole community.  The schedule becomes effective May 30/31,  and is one that we believe will impact the overall community with the least amount of negative factors.  Most people will be able to attend either the same, or slightly adjusted Mass time on Saturday or Sunday that they currently are in the habit of attending.

 The new Mass schedule, for the Catholic Community
of Dover and Barrington, effective
Pentecost Weekend, May 30th & 31st will be: