How was church today?

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JayneWonders said:
Curious, why do you feel livestreaming is not an option?
You can livestream remote led services
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Yes - recorded services could be remotely livestreamed. Are you finding that the 'live' experience is what most people want? When covid restrictions are lifted and we return to in person worship we will have to have livestreaming in place.
 
I'm wondering about churches that have returned to in person worship - with capacity limits - have you had to turn anyone away? Either members/adherents or walk ins?

Early on in this pandemic our council and Emergency Preparedness Team decided we would not return to in person worship until we could ALL return (no capacity limits) While our church is not in a 'hotzone', Peel Region has pretty much consistently been in grey lockdown. - it could be a long wait.
 
BC was going to open up the option for limited in person services over Easter and review what happens. My sense was they were bowing to pressure a bit. It was odd timing considering our numbers were increasing. That was Thursday. On Monday they announced more restrictions, which included the cancelation of any indoor in-person worship.
 
Inukshuk said:
Yes - recorded services could be remotely livestreamed. Are you finding that the 'live' experience is what most people want? When covid restrictions are lifted and we return to in person worship we will have to have livestreaming in place.
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Yes, people wanted to be able to know it was happening when they were watching, as compared to recording.
Minister & worship team also had a sense it was a community item. Once you move out of the time slot, and people can watch any time, then, the connection might drop (just a sense, no data on it)
Also, we acknowledge people as they join. In our case, chat can come into the panelists for prayer wishes or technical glitches. If someone needs to make an announcement they can be promoted to panelist and share their mic and screen
We have 1800 call-in as well for those without computers / phones / internet.
It is most like "church" for our community.
We then follow with a live /interactive coffee time with everyone having mic / video, plus call-in.
 
Inukshuk said:
I'm wondering about churches that have returned to in person worship - with capacity limits - have you had to turn anyone away? Either members/adherents or walk ins?

Early on in this pandemic our council and Emergency Preparedness Team decided we would not return to in person worship until we could ALL return (no capacity limits) While our church is not in a 'hotzone', Peel Region has pretty much consistently been in grey lockdown. - it could be a long wait.
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The challenge that was given to the leadership team was to address the privilege of having internet/computer.

As we moved into zones that allowed a few people to gather (under 25), the church was opened up, though service is still via gotowebinar.
The message is that if you have the ability to watch and participate at home, you should still do so.
For those who are unable to do so, or find the lack of seeing people in real-life debilitating, they can come into the sanctuary and watch the service be streamed on the large screen unit that is normally used for powerpoint.
There are volunteers to ensure that social distancing is done and maintained, masks are worn.
We have, on average 10 people in the sanctuary plus 10 volunteers.
The minister is present, but, in his office. This keeps him distant from the sanctuary and removes the feeling that you should be in the sanctuary to support the minister.
No musicians are in the sanctuary, they are all remote.

The worship team has been looking at livestreaming to remove the need for a webinar type software, but, the questions remain what functions are required long-term and short-term, what kind of cameras, etc. Good information has been provided by people in the UCCan page.
 
I don't know if anyone watched our service, but except for a couple of sound glitches (we think that the scripture reading sound problem came from the soundboard, so that'll need a deep dig...), does anyone have anything to suggest/say about cameras, movement, sound, etc.?
 
GiancarloZ said:
If anyone is into Easter Vigil services (which I love), St Thomas Fifth Avenue (Episcopal) has a beautiful one. It is live now but certainly will be available for watch later:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=739662903391928
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I have never attended an Easter vigil service but I understand the Easter vigil mindset. I was plunged into it today after our virtual Good Friday service. In keeping with the tradition of leaving in silence, the zoom service ended abruptly. It was a powerful moment!
 
We cancelled our Easter Sunday in person service Friday morning. At 30% of capacity, we were confident of being able to welcome everyone who came. When the capacity was reduced to 15%, it would have resulted in us needing lo ask latecomers to listen to the service in their cars, and we did not want to do that. Our Good Friday service was very well received. Here is the link to the recording:
 
Easter greetings to you all. We had a good time recording our service. Prior to the recording the room was filled with happiness and laughter. The past year has changed our manner of presenting. Just like many of your communities, we are trying to make use of technology to share our services. We are not highly advanced in this regard, and our video is pretty straightforward. Here is what we recorded:

 
I watched our Easter service and it was lovely. I do enjoy listening while drinking a cup of coffee. It is pre recorded, so music and video ca be added and edited

one Live thing they do is have post service coffee hour

it is a zoom thing. They send out links, you sign on and you can see several “rooms” set up. You can join into a room to chat and visit. And move rooms to see others. It is actually a nice live feature
 
Went to the Good Friday Service Drive In service at 1:00 and enjoyed it very much. We were close to the front and it was a beautiful day. They handed out small prepackaged plastic cups with grape juice which included a wafer. (I know plastic, not good). The service lasted 45 minutes and all was good. Glad I went.
 
We too cancelled our in-person church service on Easter because of the reduction to 15 percent capacity. But I was lucky enough to be able to sing in our choir. It was such a joy to sing with these good people (7 of us, and I am definitely the weakest singer!) We used singers' masks and distanced ourselves, but the sound still came out loud and clear...and musical. It made my Easter to be able to do in-person church in singing style.
 
We had two services on Easter Sunday.

Public Health Restrictions allow us to gather in groups no larger than 50 for worship and with a giant sanctuary 50 spread out with lots of space for separation.

We had two services because we didn't want to have to turn anyone away from one service. Worshippers still had to pre-register. the 11 am service booked full quickly, the 8 am offering not something that most wanted apparently. Less than half of our capacity.

From comments offered by those who attended in person and those who followed along on-line the services were meaningful and captured well the witness of the day.

Having led worship in an empty building for the better part of a year it was a joy to share that time with a few.

Exhausting trying to remember all of the in-person stuff that is non-verbal communication and frustrating to remember that what you remembered to do is now hidden behind a mask so the fullness of communication isn't happening. But that is the choice we make to have our musicians present and meet face-to-face.

The responsive sermon I wrote for the Sunriseish service and Chrysostom's Paschal Homily were well received.
 
A good conversation/sermon today with a retired Anglican priest, the millennial communications director at Hillhurst, and Rev. Pentland. They were discussing spirituality and religion and where we find it. The actual church building was seen as peripheral as we can experience Creator in our lives wherever we may be. I agree with the idea of Goddess/Creator/God being experienced wherever we may be. Some of my most spiritual experiences have been on long bicycle rides in the past. Having said that, I do miss being able to sit in the 100 year old pews and miss the sacred space of the Sanctuary. Guess for me spirit can be experienced both inside and outside the church building.
 
My message today was quite different from what I said in our online service recorded last Monday. Bit of a sad feeling this might be our last in church service before I leave if the case count in Ontario does not come down. It was different doing a funeral service yesterday limited to 30 people in total for a person who died on April 24 last year. The family was relieved to finally be able to have the service. It was a blend of live stuff and pre-recorded messages. Our videographer recorded the service in two cameras and will integrate the pre recorded videos and the photos for the slide show with his recordings.
 
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