Dear Friends, 

Over the next several years, the Church around the world will be participating in a process called the Synod on Synodality. Pope Francis will be meeting with Bishops from around the world in 2023 to discuss ways of improving the process by which the church on all levels is open to hearing the voices of people from all walks of life. Below please find more information and an invitation to participate in a synodal listening session in our local parishes. I invite and encourage your participation in this process and am grateful to those leading the process for our parishes.

Blessings & peace,
Fr. Thom

Dear Friends,
​
There are a number of things going on and coming up at New Roads:

Stewardship Sunday
On Sunday, November 7th, at all of our weekend Masses in person and online, we’ll be celebrating Stewardship Sunday. This is the one weekend of the year where we ask you to make a financial commitment to our parishes for the year ahead. If you’re on our mailing list, you’ll be receiving a letter in the mail in the coming days with more details. In the meantime, please plan to join us for worship on Sunday, November 7th!

Worship Space Upgrades
Construction on our South Worship Space at St. Joseph is moving steadily along. Check out our Instagram or Facebook pages for photos coming soon of the work in progress! We’ll be back in the space as soon as we can, hopefully in just a few more weeks. We have been focused on infrastructure upgrades:

• Building the new walls to help us better control lighting and acoustics
• Installing new house lights
• Upgrading out electrical system dramatically
• Installing lighting rigging to hold light fixtures to better light the altar and other key spots
• Installing our cabling professionally (instead of running cables across the floor)

These infrastructure upgrades are a big step forward and give us a solid foundation to build upon. We’ll continue to upgrade the space even once we’re back in it, in ways that won’t disrupt our regular use of the space.

Fr. Fleming’s Retirement
As we announced at Masses last weekend, Fr. Austin Fleming, who has served in the role of Senior Vicar at New Roads for the past two years, met with Cardinal Seán to request Senior Priest (retirement) status, which the Cardinal granted. Fr. Fleming will be moving to St. Zepherin’s in Wayland in the coming weeks. Congratulations to Fr. Fleming on this milestone and on completing 48 years of service to the church! Please join us in celebrating Fr. Fleming’s retirement and expressing gratitude for his ministry at New Roads on Sunday, November 7th, after the 10am Mass at St. Luke’s in the lower hall. Please RSVP here if you plan to join us.

Kids’ Church Open House
Save the date for a Kids’ Church Open House taking place on Sunday, November 14th, immediately following the 10am Mass at St. Joseph. This Open House is for all members of our community to come and learn about the wonderful work of our kids and kids’ ministry leaders. Our kids and kids ministers are eager to share their work with the community and to invite others to be a part of what God is doing in our kids programs! No RSVP or signup is needed to attend; simply come to the Kids’ Church space following the 10am Mass at St. Joseph on Sunday, November 14th. We hope to see you there!

Weekend Coordinator
New Roads is hiring for a part-time Weekend Coordinator to assist with our 10am Mass at St. Joseph. This role has been a great fit for college students or recent graduates (but is of course open to all!). It requires in person presence on Sunday mornings and otherwise can be done remotely (online). To learn more about this role and to apply, click here.
​
Support for Afghan Refugees
This weekend (October 30/31) we’ll have a special collection at all Masses in support of Afghan refugees resettling in our area. We’ll also have a Winter Clothing Drive to benefit Afghan Refugee families on the weekends of November 13/14 and 20/21, before and after weekend Masses at St. Luke. For more information on the Winter Clothing Drive and how you can help refugee families, please click here.

Peace & blessings,
The New Roads Team

​We're excited to share today some dreams and plans we have for the future, specifically for the future of our worship space at St. Joseph. We’ve made some gradual upgrades to our worship space (which we call the South Worship Space) over time, but we realize now more than ever that we need to make some significant upgrades to our worship space so that it’s less temporary in nature and better suited to our needs as a growing, modern, and online church. We have been blessed to have some amazing friends and partners who are helping us design and plan our space upgrades. We even have some rough sketches to share!

​In this photo above, you’ll see a sketch of the worship space with:

• a new wall behind the altar to allow for liturgical lighting
• new screens so everyone can easily see lyrics, images, and videos 
• a lighting truss hung over head which will dramatically improve our ability to light key spots
• new and consistent staging that doesn’t creak and provides sufficient space for us to lead worship

One of the dreams we have with our space is to be able to better control lighting. Being able to darken the space allows us to use lighting intentionally to engage and draw people into the experience of worship. While we can and will use some window tinting and curtains in certain areas, we’re planning to construct some walls in the back of the worship space to help control the lighting and improve the acoustics of the space. 

​The photo above shows the entrance to the worship space as you approach the steps (the walls are highlighted in yellow). As you approach the steps, you’ll see a mounted welcome screen, and if you go up the steps, you can enter the worship space to the right.

​​The photo above shows the view up the ramp as you enter the worship space, with a wall constructed to block the light and sound that enters from the hallway near the courtyard.

​The photo below shows a view looking from the back of the worship space toward the information desk.

​I realize it may be hard to really visualize these changes but they will vastly improve our experience of worship from an audio, visual, and lighting perspective.

We’ve been working with the best professionals in the Boston area to scope out this work and we’re really excited about the possibilities. In addition to upgrades to our physical worship space, we also need to invest in technology for recording and streaming. In our new hybrid world, we must invest in technology to continue and expand what we’re doing online and in person. We need to invest in upgrading computers and purchasing new equipment.

Finally, we have dreams of refreshing our kids spaces so that our church is an engaging, fun space for kids--a church kids want to come to. The photos above are some photos, not of our space, but of some inspiration for where we’re hoping to go with our kids spaces in the future.

To move toward making those dreams and plans a reality, we are inviting you to make a one-time gift to New Roads in the coming week. As we’ve been dreaming with God about the future at New Roads, a family in our community has generously stepped up to give to get us started--and, they want to encourage and inspire others to give by offering to match every gift made to this effort.

All gifts of any amount, from $100, $1,000, $5,000, all the way up to an individual gift of $25,000 will be matched. To be clear, this is a one-time commitment to support this project. We won’t be coming back to you in a month to meet a particular dollar amount. We’re praying that our community will respond to this opportunity and help us take this significant step forward. To give, simply visit: givebutter.com/NewRoadsMatch. Thank you for your support and partnership in what God is doing in our midst!

Dear Friends,
​
It has been a joy to worship with many of you online (and some in-person) over this past year. While online worship has lifted our spirits during a difficult time (and may continue to be the best option for some), we’re thrilled to be gathering in person more this summer, starting next Sunday, June 20th.

What’s happening in person?

• At St. Joseph, we’ll resume our 9:00am in-person Mass in the south worship space on Sunday, June 20th. (We’ll resume the 10:30am Mass in person when needed based on capacity.)
• St. Luke’s will continue to have in-person Masses on Saturdays at 4:00pm and Sundays at 10:00am. 

What will in-person worship be like?

• Following guidance from the State of Massachusetts and the Archdiocese of Boston, masks are no longer required for fully vaccinated people, but are always welcome and respected on our campuses. Masks are advised for non-vaccinated people. 
• For the comfort and safety of all, we are practicing social distancing of at least 3 feet. 
• Registration is not required for any of our in-person Masses. However, given that we cannot anticipate attendance (particularly at our 9am Mass at St. Joseph), it is possible we will reach capacity. We’ll add a 10:30am Mass in person at St. Joseph when needed. Thank you in advance for your flexibility and patience as we work through this transition time together!
• We are planning to resume our in-person children’s worship experiences (Tiny Disciples and Kids’ Church) this fall. These programs are normally on break over the summer.
• For more details about in-person worship, as well as FAQs, please visit our website.
• Questions? Please reply to this email. We’d be glad to hear from you and we’re here to help!

What’s happening online?

• Our Sunday online broadcast schedule remains the same: 9:00 & 10:30am from St. Joseph and 10:00am from St. Luke. Find the links to join us on our Website.

We are deeply grateful for your support and for all the ways we have carried out our mission through new methods this past year. We look forward to seeing you very soon.

Peace & blessings,
Fr. Thom and the New Roads team

Dear Friends,

We’re excited to begin offering more opportunities to gather in person in the coming weeks. At St. Luke, we’ll continue to hold our 4:00pm Saturday Vigil Mass in person. Beginning on Sunday, May 16, the 10:00am live-stream Mass at St. Luke will also be in person each Sunday. Please view the procedures for in-person Mass on our Website and find the link to pre-register to attend Mass in person at St. Luke.

At St. Joseph, we are in the process of transitioning from pre-recording Mass to live-streaming Mass. We are also moving towards welcoming people to join us for Mass in person in the south worship space (formerly called the hall). While we don’t have a firm date to announce just yet for in-person worship at St. Joseph, we are aiming to resume our 9:00am in-person Mass at St. Joseph sometime in the month of June. We will of course keep you posted! Our online schedule at St. Joseph will remain the same: Sundays at 9:00am and 10:30am. We are sharing more information about this transition each Sunday at the end of Mass, so be sure to join us online. We will also be sharing further updates via email and our website. 

We look forward to seeing you online or in person soon,
The New Roads Team
--

St. Luke Masses:
4pm Saturday Vigil Mass--in person
10am Sunday Mass--online and in person (starting May 16)

St. Joseph Masses:
9am Sunday Mass--online and in person (starting in June, exact date to be announced)
10:30am Mass--online

​This year has forced us to reimagine almost everything our church does, from worship to prayer to community and more. While this has brought about significant challenges, it has also brought about great opportunities to bring new life to our standard ways of being. As we approach Advent and Christmas this year, we’re faced with the same reality: great challenge to our normal practices during these seasons, and great opportunities too. 

Christmas will look very different this year than in years past. Normally we welcome more than 1500 people to our two campuses at 4:00pm for Christmas Eve Masses. Obviously we can’t gather in anything close to those numbers this year. In considering the possibility of any in-person Masses this Christmas, the challenges are significant: singing is prohibited, capacity is significantly reduced, and people have to register in advance (on a day when the majority of people who attend Mass aren’t regularly connected with the church at all). All together, these restrictions create a sense of exclusion, so contrary to the spirit of Christmas and contrary to our mission as a faith community. In addition, holding multiple in-person gatherings in the midst of a worsening pandemic raises significant public health concerns.

Given this, and considering that the overwhelming majority of our community has chosen to worship online instead of in-person during this time, we’ve made the decision to host our Christmas Masses online only this year. We’ll have 2 online Christmas Eve Masses, both at 4:00pm, one from St. Joseph and one from St. Luke. Both Masses will be available to view on demand at any other time after they’ve been broadcast, either later on Christmas Eve or anytime on Christmas Day.

This is a challenge to be sure--we’d all love to be together in person for Christmas--but it also represents a great opportunity. Since we’ll be online, our capacity is unlimited and we can fully welcome everyone to join in. Our virtual doors will be wide open! Families will be able to worship together in our online campus, even if they are separated by a great distance this Christmas. We’ll have easy and fun ways to help you invite friends and neighbors to join us online this Christmas.

We’re also preparing Christmas Eve Kits, to help us feel more connected in our worship together. The kits will contain candles to light as we worship together, Christmas activities for your kids, and some other fun surprises. You can reserve your Christmas Eve Kit here and it can be picked up on the weekend of December 19/20.

Even though we’ll be worshipping from home this year, we’re committed to making this Christmas a wonderful and meaningful celebration. We hope and expect that Christmas next year will look very different from this year; but above all, we place our hope in the joy of Emmanuel, God with us, no matter where we are.

Hi New Roads,

We’re looking forward to worshipping together (online) this weekend!

• We’ll be joining the Church of the Nativity at 10:45am tomorrow. Use this link to join: https://live.churchnativity.com/ Or join via Facebook Live. (Be sure to say hi using the chat feature!)
• The Saturday Vigil Mass will be live-streamed from St. Luke’s at 4:00pm today (and available to view on demand anytime after that!) at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW4aRmRSMmM&feature=youtu.be

No matter how you join in worship this weekend, take a photo of yourself, or your family, or your setup joining in worship this weekend. Send the photo to us or tag us on social media and we’ll share the photos to help us all feel more connected. And finally, invite a friend! Forward this email to friends or family members or post the link on your social media to invite everyone to join us for worship online this weekend.

See you online!

Love,
The New Roads Team

Connect with us online:
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Hi Friends,

We wanted to reach out with an update on things going on at New Roads these days.

Both churches remain closed until further notice. This includes daily and weekend Masses, funerals, and any other gatherings or activities. There is no public access to our buildings at this time since we cannot ensure the safety of people coming and going. 

We’ll continue to worship together online on Sundays. As the situation continues to evolve, we are determining what’s possible and safe in terms of video taping Masses at New Roads, joining the Church of the Nativity online, or some combination. As we’re sure you can appreciate, there are many variables to consider. We’ll continue to send an email out on Saturday with the link(s) to join us online for worship each Sunday.

Below are some resources for you and your family to continue to grow in faith during this time:

• New Roads’ Lent message series, Enough, continues online. Watch Week 4 (new today!).
• Fr. Fleming’s blog, A Concord Pastor Comments, is a great source for daily inspiration and prayer.
• New Roads’ Spotify profile features a new playlist (“What we’re listening to”) with songs to help us to live out of hope and love during this season.
• We’ll continue to send out weekly resources for kids & families.
• Cardinal Sean and the Archdiocese of Boston are offering a Virtual Lenten Retreat.

Some other notes to make you aware of:

• Gifts to New Roads can be made using online giving or by mailing a check (please make checks payable to either St. Joseph Church or St. Luke Church).
• The collection of Easter baskets at St. Luke’s is suspended due to health concerns. If you’d like to continue to support St. Vincent de Paul at this time, donations may be made by mailing a check to the offices: 130 Common St, Belmont. Please make checks payable to: St. Luke's St. Vincent de Paul Society.
• CORI (background check) renewals for all volunteer ministers are on hold at this time. If you have a CORI, please hold on to it until our churches reopen. The deadline for renewals will be adjusted.
• The Archdiocese of Boston has indicated that we will not be gathering publicly for the celebrations of Holy Week & Easter. We are working on ways we can share in these most special holy days as a community.

While so many things are cancelled right now, please know that in the truest sense, church is not cancelled. We are a Body, not a building. Things are shutting down all around us, but as the people of God, we are called to rise up--together--in faith, hope, and love. Please know of our prayers and gratitude for you.

Peace, blessings, & love,
The New Roads Team
--
Connect with us online:
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Dear New Roads friends,

We have been closely monitoring the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Belmont and around the world. There have been several local developments this week including the closure of Belmont Public Schools for 2 weeks beginning today and the Executive Order from Governor Baker this afternoon prohibiting all gatherings of over 250 people throughout the state of Massachusetts. Therefore, based on the Governor's Executive Order and in accordance with the Archdiocese of Boston guidelines, here's what you can expect from New Roads in the weeks ahead:

• Both churches, St. Joseph and St. Luke, will be closed effective immediately and continuing through March 29th.
• We are working on ways to praise God through teaching and worship online. Stay tuned for more details to come by following us online: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and our email list.
• We invite parishioners and guests to stay safe, to stay healthy, and to join us online.

As a church community, our first and foremost concern is for the safety and well-being of people--those who attend New Roads as well as our wider community. While many are cancelling events “out of an abundance of caution,” we prefer how our neighbors at Highrock Church phrased it -- “out of an abundance of love.” Our decision is based on love and care for our community. Many members of our community are over 65 years of age, which the CDC considers at higher risk for severe outcomes related to COVID-19.

As a community, we have an obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us, even if it inconveniences those of us who are not at higher risk. It seems that right now, the best way to follow Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself,” is to support the federal, state, and local efforts to slow the spread of this virus so that our neighbors are protected and our healthcare system is not overwhelmed. We are choosing not to act out of fear, but to be responsible and proactive, and to lead with love and care for our neighbors.

Finally, like many churches, we rely on our weekly offertory collection to cover our operating expenses (staff salaries & healthcare benefits, heating & maintaining our buildings, etc.). We are making an intentional choice to prioritize the health and safety of our community, but also know that cancelling Sunday Masses will be a challenge for us financially. If it’s at all possible for you and your family, please consider making a one-time gift or a recurring gift online. Thank you for your continued support of our community! 

To keep informed of further updates, we encourage you to be on the lookout for future emails as well as to follow us online using the social media links above. This is a powerful moment to be the church, to lead and live not out of fear, but out of love, to step up and to serve those in need, and to be thoughtful and creative in doing so. This is certainly a “new road” for all of us, but our God is with us and for us; God goes before us and will lead us to new life. 

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.” 
2 Timothy 1:7

With love for you, your families, and all our neighbors,
The New Roads Team
info@newroadscatholic.org