Worship in times of COVID

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Mendalla said:
A relevant article from The Globe on how various faith leaders are reacting to the closure of Sunday Services.

www.theglobeandmail.com

As Passover, Easter and Ramadan services are cancelled amid COVID-19, preachers wonder: Where is God in all this?

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, three preachers told The Globe and Mail they have been grappling with questions that have dogged saints and theologians for millennia: Where is God in all of this?
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
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It is a mystery .. like God has become sacred in the darker side ... a whole different indication of what text and scripture means ... as metaphorical across time? The shadow under the Tamar tree pops up ... to cast a pall over the power of scheming Judah! No! I don't say Jews are bad ... but at one time Judah represented the primal power or motivation ... extreme emotions? So much to learn in ancient literature if one has an open and fluid mind-heart ... enter the Hebrew shadow persona ... what's her label?
 
What are churches doing for Holy Week this year? Just watching the Palm Sunday service from Pickering Village UC (@revsdd's church, got the link from his Twitter) and he announced that they are doing virtual services for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but are skipping Maundy Thursday this year.
 
We are doing a Maundy Thursday service, and both Good Friday and Easter services. I am really mourning our annual Seder dinner following the Maundy Thursday service. Normally right about now, I'd be planning on when to take the lamb legs out of the freezer, whether I'll roast them Wednesday or Thursday, what other side dishes I have to fill in.

For your enjoyment, if you haven't found another virtual service to attend: Palm Sunday at Grace United Barrie
 
We formed a small team and delivered palm branches and a short meditation to the homes of our community members. Also, I posted a short reflection and video on our web site. Here is the link:

Post | BigRedChurch

www.thebigredchurch127.com www.thebigredchurch127.com
 
We had another week of Zoom-based services.
In our case, the services are relatively standard, but with more participation of the people during the service. Especially for Palm Sunday, we stayed close to the Lectionary and this time of the year. In lieu of grassy palms, we blessed the palms of our hands (!) and the sermon was based on the Passion, i.e. extraordinary times, how it's relatively easy to take control of a crowd ("Crucify Jesus!") and how the disciples had to quickly adapt to their new role in this unforeseen tragedy (could it be us in 2020?).
All that was followed by a very chatty coffee hour.

As others have said previously, we will celebrate when we physically come back together. But I also think the Zoom experience will be very useful to get weekday prayers or discussion groups off the ground.
 
Our church posted a Palm Sunday service including communion. It was well done

they are not doing the Maundy Thursday dinner, obviously, but are doing a Good Friday service and Easter. No sunrise service on Good Friday

this Past week I was part of a phone tree to call all our members and check up on them. I guess I had 25 names to Call. One concerned and frightened elderly lady who I call the minister to get him talking to her. others in quarantine after trips, others working from home. everyone Happy the church reached out
 
On S Douglas' input consider her activism ... and parts played in some really hypnotic movies ... I ponder the theme in Mesmer especially!

It appears the woman was the dark side to American Capital Extremes.

If the poor are depressed far enough ... with the bottom rise with a large bump in the night ... another civil Eyes'd conflict?

It may be a test on mankind ... and some particular isolations ... mah*ein*aim is some alien perspectives of the aboriginal power ... anima?

Tis last word is about the female spirit in a man ... while there is a reciprocal ... sometimes related to the sol of sols ... an unconscious mine?

Sometimes referenced as a well to draw from ... isn't that deviated ... from powerful corrupt physical rule? It extends on the cognate of what we don't know! Give me purpose in a question that may not really appear as a question ... but hides things of taboo ... powers state that the common people shouldn't know ... and John was common ... envisioned a civilized society of the future as dream projection ... in direct opposition to the leaders desire to put the common vales through hell.

Maybe a responsible confinement of desires would be an improvement. There is even a theory that life is just a test ... this word a Lab a' Dore to the next ... Just IMAGINE! Do such things linger? Was that established by another John as common?
 
I have tried to encourage our minister to do something for our church over this period when we cannot meet within community. However, she is hiding. (I hate to say that, but that's what it seems like to me). Another local church is doing on-line services, and they are wonderful, thoughtful, Bible-based, helpful, and hopeful. I may be switching churches when all of this is done.
 
I am really not sure all churches need to be offering on-line services. I have looked at a few different ones, and the quality varies quite a bit. It is nice to see folks from our own congregations . . . I have to wonder if encouraging everyone to look at the moderator's service, say, (or another one) & then gathering for discussion on Zoom might be a better use of resources.

Not being tech savvy, I am not sure how much time and effort is required to pull one of these on-line services together. But I imagine it is considerable.
 
Some local churches are doing things online - but I haven't spent any time watching or listening to them. I quit going to church several years ago. One church is doing a Drive-In Service at a large parking area. It sounded like they have a parking plan worked out that will keep the vehicles spaced at safe distances. I assume they will use a powerful sound system so people can hear from their cars. Hope it does't blast through the nearby houses too - we have noise by-laws!
 
Our on-line service has seen a few folks who don't normally join us on Sunday mornings. A former staff member was there today,
 
I have seen 'drive in services' mentioned elsewhere - I'm not really sure how (why?) that would work. (OTOH - our last remaining local drive in theatre is apparently still in operation - with modifications!)

paradox3 said:
I am really not sure all churches need to be offering on-line services.
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Completely agree with you on this one! Perhaps better use might be to connect the smaller groups for 'coffee & conversation' during the week - rather than the corporate worship model. But you know ....
 
We are going to be attempting bible study by Zoom this week.

We were asked by the facilitator (lay person who often does it) if we wanted to proceed because it had been planned for RL in April. I said I would be willing to give it a try. BUT, I said, I thought the study guides we use would need to be simplified & adapted for on line purposes.

It appears that there has been no alteration of the material and I am being cited as one of two people who said they were in favor of going ahead.

Gotta love email communication. :p
 
paradox3 said:
Not being tech savvy, I am not sure how much time and effort is required to pull one of these on-line services together. But I imagine it is considerable.
Click to expand...

Depends how much effort you want to put in. I mean, pointing a camera at the pulpit and streaming the output to a Youtube livestream or something (or just recording it and posting it) isn't that demanding. I would suggest that you want to get a good quality camera and a tripod rather than using your phone, but otherwise fairly simple.

Now, if you actually want to make it look really good, sure, you'll need multiple cameras, definitely want to record stuff ahead of time and edit in a good video editor program, make sure the operators know what the Hell they are doing, and so on.

But I watched Pickering's service last week and while it was fairly simple, just a camera or two, and it came across fairly well. They put hymn lyrics and such on their usual screens rather than editing them into the video, which worked fairly well. I'm sure a fair bit of work went into it, but once they've done it once or twice, I imagine it won't be too demanding.
 
I heard an update about the Drive-In worrsip service here. They have included the local radio station so people will just listen to their radio in the car.
 
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