The following is an excerpt from an email from Bishop Robson to the clergy of the diocese. I offer this for your information. Further clarification will be given in due course…

As many of you will by now realise the First Minister made a Statement today, giving the daily statistics, updating the gradual relaxation of COVID restrictions – especially imparting the good news concerning the reopening of ‘Places of Worship’ for us: our Catholic Churches.

The advice was straightforward but is dependent on the COVID statistics continuing to decline/stabilize.

The Statement contained the following notices relative to us:

Our Churches can re-open for public worship as from Friday, 26th March 2021 (the Friday before Palm Sunday). Thanks be to God we shall be open for Holy Week and Easter.
However, for our Catholic churches, this will mean continuing our current arrangements for entering our churches, registering contact details of attendees, the wearing of masks, the observation of social distancing and the rules concerning the distribution of Holy Communion. These arrangements will continue for the foreseeable future.
The so-called ‘cap’ has been raised to that which we experienced during the First 2020 lockdown i.e., a maximum of 50 worshipers, while still observing social distancing.