The Parish family of St. John offers their condolences for your loss.   In the days ahead, we pray that you may feel the presence of God through those who will offer their support and sympathy.
 
A funeral is ordinarily scheduled with the Church by the funeral director.  No funerals are permitted on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
  
1. After the family meets with the funeral director, Father Mark will arrange to meet with no more than two (2) members of the immediate family at the Church to hear how the family wishes their loved one to be remembered, to go over the directives for a funeral at St. John Church, to select a reading and to select hymns. During that meeting, masks are to be worn. Please make sure to bring your mask from home.
 
2.  Some Recommended Hymns include:
 

A.  The following hymns are appropriate to be used for the processional or recessional:

            Be Not Afraid
            Eternal Father, Strong to Save (military)
            Eye Has Not Seen
            For All the Saints
            Here, I Am Lord
            How Great Thou Art
            Irish Blessing
            On Eagle’s Wings
            Sing with All the Saints in Glory
 

B.  The following hymns are appropriate to be used for the presentation/preparation of gifts:

            Amazing Grace
            Ave Maria
            I Know That My Redeemer Lives
            Precious Lord, Take My Hand
            Transfigure Us, O Lord
            We Remember
 

C.   The following hymns are appropriate to be used for communion:

            Gift of Finest Wheat
            I Am the Bread of Life
            One Bread, One Body
            The Supper of the Lord

2.    You are to wear a mask before entering the Church, while attending the funeral, and as you exit the Church.  Please make sure to bring your mask from home.  Otherwise, we must ask you to leave.
 
3.    Seating for a funeral is limited to 40 people and restricted to designated seating in order to maintain social distancing (i.e., 6 feet in all directions).   The designated  seating is limited to one (1) adult or two (2) adults who reside in the same house or who came to Church in the same vehicle.  We regret that we are not able to make spaces available for three (3) or more adults to sit together in the same designated space.  
         
4.    Those attending the funeral are to park their vehicles in the front parking lot of the Church and are to remain outside the Church except for those who will serve as pallbearers and those who need to use the Church’s elevator.
 
5.    If there is a coffin, those who will serve as pallbearers are to gather at the hearse parked in front of the Church to assist with the carrying of the coffin into the Church.
 
6.    Once the coffin or urn has been placed in front of the main altar of the Church, the immediate family will enter the Church and be seated, followed by all others.   All are to enter the Church through the front doors of the Church except for those who need to use the Church’s elevator.   The doors by the elevator and the doorway by the priest’s sacristy are not to be used.
 
7.    While the music director of the Church will be available to play for a funeral, the presence of a cantor cannot be guaranteed.  Given that no missalettes are permitted to be available in the pews, there will be no congregational singing.
 
8.    The priest will proclaim the readings.
 
9.    There will be no Sign of Peace. 

10.  Communion will take place within the Mass.  To receive Communion, you are to come down the main/center aisle single-file, observing the markings on the carpet for social distancing of 6 feet.   As you approach the priest to receive Communion, lower your mask.  The priest will place the consecrated host in your hand, consume the consecrated host, replace your mask and then return to your seat observing social distancing.

11.  No eulogy is permitted at this time.
 
12.  At the end of the funeral Mass and a brief concluding funeral rite, if there is a coffin, the pallbearers will be invited to meet in the front foyer of the Church and the funeral director will bring the coffin to the main foyer of the Church.  Or if there is an urn, the funeral director will carry the urn to the back of the Church.
 
13.  The priest will then direct the immediate family to exit the Church through the front doors of the Church observing social distancing.   They will be followed by all others who are to observe social distancing.