Cathedral Reopening • Update from the Dean

Dear Friends,

We are a week closer to re-opening and we very much look forward to welcoming you again at St Paul’s in person from 7 November. In order to help us prepare for our reopening, we are going to have a number of our volunteers back at this coming Sunday’s services. That will enable us to get back into the Cathedral way of doing things after six lockdowns. So you will see servers, readers and Cathedral canons on your live-streams. This Sunday, 31 October, will also be the last of our online coffee hours at 9.15am.

The following Sunday, 7 November, we will be welcoming fully-vaccinated worshippers to our 8am and 10am services. From Friday, 26 October we will be permitted 450 fully-vaccinated worshippers to be present. There is therefore no need to pre-book for the 8am and 10am services. You do, however, need to show your proof of vaccination (or your proof of medical exemption) to the verger or staff member. If you use a Services Victoria App to check in, then you can link your proof of vaccination to the app, and simply show that to the welcomer. Children under 16 do not need to be vaccinated to attend the two Sunday morning services at this stage.

While we strongly encourage people to be vaccinated we do not wish to exclude those who choose not to be vaccinated. That is why from Sunday, 7 November, we will be welcoming worshippers with unknown vaccination status to our 1pm service. Worship numbers for services for people with unknown vaccination status are currently capped at 30 attenders. This means that you need to book your seat, if you would like to attend the 1pm service. You can click here to book a seat. We will be maintaining the 1pm Service as a bi-lingual Mandarin/English Eucharist for vaccination status unknown worshippers throughout the summer. This will be the only vaccination status unknown service to be offered each week: all other services will require proof of vaccination (or exemption) for attendance in line with the Chief Health Officer’s regulations.

From 9 November, you will also be able to join us for in-person worship at Choral Evensong at 5.10pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and for a lunchtime Eucharist at 12.15pm on Wednesdays. Again, proof of vaccination will need to be shown as you enter St Paul’s, but there is no need to book a seat for these mid-week services, either.

We will continue to stream our Sunday services at 8am and 10am. From 7 November, our Bible study will take place in person at 11.15am in the Barbara Darling Room, with a capacity of up to 40 attenders. We will be enabling zoom participation for the Bible Studies for those of you who are still isolating or are joining us from further afield in Melbourne or Australia.

Please keep us, and our community, in your prayers as we transition into meeting in-person again. While we do hope that there won’t be any glitches when we welcome you back on 7 November, do be patient with our colleagues—for them returning to St Paul’s to in-person worship will be just as much a new experience as it is will be for many of you! 

Next week, from 1-4 November, the Cathedral staff are taking some much earned well-being days off. Streamed services will continue as usual but the Cathedral office will be closed and only reopen on Friday, 5 November. 

If you have any queries, or need assistance in booking a seat for our Sunday 1pm Vaccination Status Unknown Eucharist, please do not hesitate to contact the team, who will be delighted to help you: welcome@stpaulscathedral.org.au.

With all good wishes,

Dean Andreas.

Updated: 29 Oct 21