OMPH Church Initiates Interactive Online-Mass With Drive-Thru Communion

Interactive online mass ....

...then drive-thru communion 

…………”receiving communion was like icing on the cake”

“It is ‘All Systems Go’ for interactive online-masses complete with a drive-thru communion” said  OMPH Church’ Parish Priest, Fr Patrick Massang after a trial mass was successfully carried out last weekend.  

The interactive online mass was celebrated with Fr Phillip Lai saying mass in OMPH Church and communicating to an ‘online congregation’ of the BEC (Basic Ecclesial Community) St Anne via a tablet.

Fr Lai reached out to his congregation ...

............... from Church with just a tablet

The ‘congregation’ could view the Priest via Zoom program on their hand phones or tablets and would participate interactively with readings, commentating, singing and responding from their homes all of which could be viewed by the Priest.

online congregation in the safety of their home

At the end of the mass the congregation would drive to church to receive their drive-thru communion and be on their way.

Drive-thru communion. Wind the window down, take communion and you're off

Veronica Wong from St Anne’s group, said “the mass went very well but the communion was a very nice addition and more meaningful, like having icing on the cake”.

Another participant Mrs Ivy Andrew said that if my parish is having mass I will willingly participate. As for communion it is something I love to partake every time even if it is via a drive thru. It’s not inconvenient in any way.

First time …..

Fr Massang said the online mass with drive-thru communion was the safest way to go. Other churches were doing online masses but communion was not attached. Attaching communion after the mass is more meaningful.

“It was really meant for the congregation who consist of a majority senior citizens. Because Covid 19 had worsened we didn’t want to take any risks. As the mass is online there is no physical contact.

At the end of the mass you drive in, wind the glass down and receive the communion and be off. It is the safest way to go about it and all SOP’s are observed.

This will be the practice until we open the church for service again. We intend to have more masses on weekends but it will be gradual.

It will be a good outreach for the congregation to connect with the church again”.

All the language groups in the parish will have to contact their BEC leader to participate. Already the Tamil group have said they will have their online mass and communion before the end of the month.

BEC Participation

Veronica Wong who is the leader of BEC St Anne said they had to practice with Zoom for three nights before the day of the mass.

Previously we just connected to Zoom but none of us were interactive. Now we were required to prepare the script with readings and hymns.   

There were 12 of us. It helped that we already had a BEC Whatsapp group chat so we could communicate.

We had to identify who were the readers, choir or individual singers, responding etc. Those not participating in these activities would have to mute their devices otherwise it would interfere with the audio.

Visuals of Fr Phillip Lai’ at the church altar was sharp and audio was very clear and vice versa. Overall everything went well and was very smooth.

Serving you safely. Fr Phllip Lai, Fr Patrick Massang and the OMPH Team

A positive outcome of this exercise was the group has decided to use Zoom for their group rosaries in the month of October “otherwise we will soon forget”.

It looks like this Zoom is a good outreach for the congregation to connect with the church after all.

KC