[Magdalen] Streaming Services

[Grace Cangialosi]

Warning: this is long!

Michael,

I don’t know if Miller sent you all a copy of Bishop Susan’s letter about this, but she gave a good rationale for it—she had previously alerted the clergy in our weekly conference call. She said she had made the decision in concert with the bishops of DC and Maryland—probably also the other VA diocese, though I’m not sure about that. Aside from the real health concerns, they felt that we should be modeling what is expected of our parishioners. This extends to parish staff, as well, except when a trip to the church may be necessary—picking up mail, for example.

As for me, the last time I celebrated in the church was March 15th, with three other people there. And it was not very successful. We don’t have wifi there, and even with the hotspot someone brought, we kept getting knocked off. We ended up just recording the serving and posting it to our FB page.
The Vestry and then decided that there wasn’t much point in my driving all the way up there when I could do services from my house, which I have been doing. I also added daily alternating Evening Prayer and Compline, and I did the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies and Stations of the Cross—which I suspect most of them had never done. 
On Easter, knowing I couldn’t possibly do a decent service from home, I asked them to watch the service from the National Cathedral.

It has been fascinating to see the creativity that has been used to do services in various churches, depending on what kind of technology is available to them.
One surprising outcome for me has been a closer connection, not only with the congregation, but with the wider church as I have been able to visit other churches and their services, since they’re all recorded and available—something I can’t do when we’re confined to our brick and mortar spaces. We’ve been having weekly webinars with the Bishops on Zoom. Last evening I “attended” a program at my home church on Zoom where we watched a short video by Richard Rohr and then had a discussion. There were 20 of us, and we could all see and hear each other, so there could be some check.in time at the beginning, and we were even divided randomly into two breakout groups for the discussion! I came away determined to switch us over to Zoom for Subday’s service—that way folks can participate in real time, do the readings and the prayers, and maybe even discuss the sermon. Some churches have been holding virtual “coffee hours” to stay in touch. (Some friends and I have even getting together weekly for wine and cheese “parties.)

Much longer than I intended, but it’s the first time I’ve collected my thoughts in one place. And I guess I wanted the share my discovery about the surprisingly positive results of all this.
Someone last night even made the observation that it might be nice to continue some of this later on. It would make it easier for folks to participate who don’t like to go out at night. Also—and this happened last night—people who go to 3 different services met each other, sometimes for the first time!
OK, I’m done!
Easter Blessings to all!
Grace

> On Apr 16, 2020, at 12:19 AM, Mahoney, W. Michael <wmmah at stoneledge.net> wrote:
>