We have come to the conclusion that, due to the shortage of priests available across the Diocese, we must now reduce the number of Sunday Masses in our parish. 

Throughout July and August, the number of Sunday Masses in St Columbkille’s was reduced in order to ensure that Masses in all the Rutherglen parishes could be covered by the number of priests available, even when some priests were on holiday. We were grateful for the understanding of parishioners during these months and were pleased that both Sunday morning Masses attracted large congregations.

While we are fortunate in having Fr Reilly available on some weekends to celebrate a Mass in the Parish, we are very conscious that his prime responsibility is to work with student teachers in the University of Glasgow and this role often involves him in weekend activities and travel.  So, in effect, we must plan for having only two priests available to celebrate daily and weekend Masses.  In addition to celebrating parish Masses, of course, Fr Hennessy and Fr Mournian have many other duties, including Chaplaincy work in our local schools.  While Deacon Bill is able to offer them great support, he is not an ordained priest and cannot celebrate Mass.

Our experience of the reduced number of Masses over the summer shows that the needs of our parish community will still be well-served by having four weekend Masses – the Saturday Vigil Mass and three Sunday Masses.  For now, it is intended that we would retain weekday Masses at 10am and 1pm, although two weekday Masses may be difficult to sustain in the longer term.  The Saturday Vigil Mass will remain at 5.30pm and the Sunday evening Mass will remain at 4pm.  As from the First Sunday of Advent (1^st December 2019), there will be only TWO Sunday morning Masses.

We are conscious that any such change will require parishioners to adjust their weekend routines and that it will have particular implications for those who support our Sunday Mass Liturgy – Music Ministry, Eucharistic Ministers, Passkeepers, Readers, Children’s Liturgy.  So, we wish to offer all parishioners the opportunity to state a preference for one of these options for proposed Sunday morning Mass times:

Option A: – 9.30am & 11.30am          or         Option B: – 10am & 12 Noon

Parishioners can indicate their preference by completing the tear-off slip on the printed handout and leaving it in the box on the table at the back of church by 27th October 2019.