East El Paso Espiscopal Church Offers Drive-Thru Communion
If you are one of the tens of thousands of regular church-going El Pasoans who have been missing going to Sunday Mass each week, there is some good news for you courtesy of an eastside church.
All Saints Episcopal Church at 3500 McRae Blvd. is doing online services like so many other churches in El Paso in order to stay connected with their parishioners during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they wanted to do something more. Father Phil Dougharty of All Saints said he knew his flock wanted to continue receiving communion so taking a cue from other organizations and entities, he and his church came up with drive-thru communion.
All Saints does drive-thru communion on Sundays from 11:10 - 11:45, after their online service wraps up. Social distancing and face masks are required when you drive-thru and you can speak with Father Dougharty briefly when you pick up the Sacrament. The wafer and and wine are packaged in sealed containers so you can just pick them up and not risk them being touched by someone else.
The El Paso Catholic Diocese hasn't announced any plans to do something similar, but it might be a nice thing to offer. It would give people a lot of peace and a feeling of community that they might not be getting from just watching Mass on tv. If the EP Catholic Diocese decides to offer drive-thru communion, we'll let you know. In the meantime, you can log onto their website to keep up with all the latest news on Catholic churches, and thank you to Father Dougharty and All Saints Church for thinking of their parishioners.