Virtual Church?

It was so good to share in worship on Sunday with so many of our church members. One couldn’t help wondering who would attend, but how wonderful to have a large proportion of our church members present. For a while we will continue to hold both the live 10.00am services and provide an internet service also. They will not usually be quite the same ceremony. However, in due course we hope to be able to video the actual service and relay it rapidly.

 

One thing which we have tried to achieve with the video service is to provide details which you might not normally notice. The main eucharistic prayer was filmed in a manner which gives a close-up experience of the consecration, as the bread and wine are taken and blessed. You have a “priest’s-eye” view. We have focused on the reredos of the Lord’s Supper, the All Saints window and many other areas of the church to bring out the richness of imagery which is there but not necessarily easy to see.

 

We also have videos recorded by the Dean, used this weekend, plus others by Bishop Alan and Bishop Michael. And we are saving a video each by myself and Doug for the end of August. We have both found it very interesting to prepare and present sermons in a more media-friendly way. However for worship in general there can be no real substitute for being present among the faithful, in our familiar church building. Christian worship is a participatory event, not a form of entertaining viewing. And yet, in some way I hope that – as with many matters in this changed situation – we can focus on positive gains and continue to grow in faith as people through the ages have held on to God through all that the world throws at them.