Christmas Eve under curfew: Church services over by 10 pm

In the light of the night curfew declared by the state government, all Holy Masses on Christmas Eve will be over by 10 pm

To avoid the usual large gathering of Church-going crowds on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, churches in Pune have adopted an online registration system for the entry into services.

Entry into churches will be restricted in order to avoid crowds. Everyone will not be able to attend mass on Christmas Eve. (HT FILE)

In the light of the night curfew declared by the state government, all Holy Masses on Christmas Eve will be over by 10 pm.

“We will follow all the rules of curfew. The more careful we are, the better it is. The attendees will be only of one third capacity of the church and there will be compliance to the safety norms. The Holy Masses on Christmas Eve will be over 10 pm and in the morning, on Christmas day, prayers will begin after 6am. I have instructed churches to follow these timings whether there is a curfew or not,” said Rt. Rev. Thomas Dabre, Bishop of Pune.

Entry into churches will be restricted in order to avoid crowds. Everyone will not be able to attend mass on Christmas Eve.

“Each year in my church I have approximately 1,500-2,000 people for this service. This year we will only accommodate 300 people. We have taken an overview of the attendees from our Parish Council leaders. We have asked people to join our ‘live’ Youtube link to take part in the service,” said Father Malcolm Sequeira from the St Anne’s Catholic Church, Solapur Bazaar.

“Since our church has reopened after lockdown, those who want to come to church have to do an online registration first. It is essential to follow social distancing. We are going to continue with the same procedure for Mass on Christmas. For a service only 100-120 people are given entry into the Church,” said Nitin Ranpise, chairman, Christ Church in Rasta peth.

“We do not have a huge number of attendees. So we are not following the registration process, but we will not allow elderly and the children. We will stream our prayers online on Facebook so that those who cannot join us physically will be able to participate virtually,” said Reverend Abhishek Nitin Parkar, priest in charge of Church of the Holy Angels in Rasta peth.