{"id":26849,"date":"2020-06-25T09:13:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T13:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26849"},"modified":"2020-06-25T09:13:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T13:13:10","slug":"new-chapter-begins-for-our-lady-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-chapter-begins-for-our-lady-of-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"New chapter begins for Our Lady of Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Catholics across many parts of Ontario celebrated a\nreturn to Mass on Sunday morning after restrictions due to COVID-19 led to more\nthan two months of closed doors at many places of worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, for members of Aurora\u2019s Our Lady of Grace parish,\nthe return to Mass was extra special as they were welcomed into a brand-new\nspiritual home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After extensive renovations, Our Lady of Grace Catholic\nChurch re-opened their doors in a limited way on June 21. For many members of\nthe church community, it was their first glimpse inside in nearly two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work on the new church space began in November of 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the start of the project until emergency orders were\nhanded down by the Province this past March, Mass has been taking place in the\nOur Lady of Grace Church Hall located, until its recent demolition as part of\nthe overall renovation project, just north of the church building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so grateful to our parishioners for their patience\nand generosity to support this project,\u201d said Fr. Frank McDevitt, Pastor of Our\nLady of Grace, noting it was \u201cprovidential\u201d that the church was able to open in\ntime for the Province\u2019s sanctioned return to formal worship. \u201cI am overjoyed to\nwelcome them back to both Mass and to their restored church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone has been doing their best over the last three\nmonths, but we have all been missing some pretty essential things and one of\nthem is participating in the life of the church for many people. It is a nice\nthing to see that although we have limits on numbers and there are all kinds of\nexpectations, people are finally coming back together as a church community and\nI think that is a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a welcome return to a new normal for the Parish,\nwhich required members to book their places for the service in advance to\ncomply with remaining social and physical distancing requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once current restrictions are fully lifted, the new\nworship space will accommodate 700 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to social distancing requirements, Sunday\u2019s opening was\nfully booked with parishioners spaced out on chairs, the pews still to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A highlight of the new church, says Fr. Frank, are the\nlarge dormer windows that allow natural light to flood through the space \u2013\nalong with a few other aesthetic changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis church was built in the 1980s when orange carpet\nseemed like a good idea,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere in Aurora, several other churches remained\nquiet \u2013 including Trinity Anglican Church which is not only home to the Trinity\ncommunity but, since the devastating fire in April of 2014, has also served as\na spiritual home for the Aurora United Church (AUC) community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the Province has loosened restrictions\nsurrounding places of worship, the Anglican Church has taken a different\napproach to re-opening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trinity pastor Rev. Karen Hatch says the Victoria Street\nchurch will remain closed until September, at the earliest, as per direction\nfrom the College of Bishops of the Anglican Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the College of Bishops felt lay leaders and clergy\nneeded some sabbath time or rest going into the summer,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re still\nuploading our sermons on Sunday as if we are still preaching to the\ncongregation. Trinity is looking more towards September where we can have a\nhybrid of worship where we have some people in the building and some people can\nwatch online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Aurora United Church relies on Trinity for space,\nthey are following suit and, in the meantime, continuing their online outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many steps to put in place before you\nshould open your building back for worship and you need to plan that well for\neveryone\u2019s safety,\u201d says AUC\u2019s Rev. Andy Comar. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be the place\nwhere someone contracts COVID-19 because they have attended a worship service.\nWe\u2019re going to take it slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Rev. Lorraine Newton-Comar: \u201cWe miss everyone like\ncrazy and Zoom really does not take the place of being with your people, for\nsure. We kind of just moved church life online. The church is not the building;\nthe church is in the wider world and we are in the world, so nothing has\nstopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have come to know we\u2019re adaptable in our communities. What is really wonderful to know ultimately is our people are so on board. They get it and from day one. That has been amazing. We can hardly wait to get back, but not until we\u2019re safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catholics across many parts of Ontario celebrated a return to Mass on Sunday morning after restrictions due to COVID-19 led to more than two months of closed doors at many places of worship. But, for members of Aurora\u2019s Our Lady of Grace parish, the return to Mass was extra special as they were welcomed into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-06-25-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Z3","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 16:08:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}