I enjoyed a post on FB the other day that suggested that it was not quarantine unless it came from the quarantine region of France, otherwise it was simply sparkling isolation. Many of now are in juridictions facing significant curtailment of social activities, and indeed in many place the conduct of public services has been suspended. I am wondering what approaches people are taking to this new, and hopefully temporary reality. In our parish we have production a rite which essential amounts to an ante communion with a spiritual communion at the end, producing pew bulletins, readings sheets and sermons to accompany the same. Number of other parishes are doing live streams of liturgy or office or sermon, some of which are better done than others.
Another Parish nearby me is doing daily morning and evening prayers. In fact I am 25 minutes away from morning prayers. They are streaming them on youtube. https://christchurchanglican.net
My frustration is with the quality of some of the content being put out. If you don't know anything about streaming, ask someone who does. And if you've never tried to broadcast a service before, pre-tape Morning prayer and watch it back to see if it IS watchable before you throw it up on a hosting site. Obtain an actual microphone. Make sure you go over the liturgy with anyone who is participating in advance, particularly if the service is unfamiliar or heavily modified. I have written those suggestions based on the awful videos my own parish has been putting out. And I've seen even worse. For instance, a local Lutheran chap recorded his sermon dressed like he had just walked outside to pick up his newspaper before he had his first cup of coffee.
Our Rector has sent out various prayer resources via email. We don't have the ability to stream. Two out of the four churches in our cluster are still open during the day for private prayer but public worship has ceased for the time being. Today the Cathedral Church has decided to close its doors to the public entirely but will be making various digital resources available according to their website. I've just been following the CofE's Daily Office via phone app.
Given the production quality of material we watch in our day to day lives, to me it seems important that if we are going to play the streaming bit we should do it well, which means being prepared to invest in the time and material to do it well. If you have a good phone, then it is plausible to record the audio, and have a file you can listen to, however for video I think you need at least one camera, and someone driving it, and the static talking head is not ideal. Our Bishop yesterday banned using church buildings for streaming.
Can you link to the videos. I am curious what a Continuing service is like. Also is the confession and reconciliation still valid even when done over video?
https://www.facebook.com/SaintTimothyAnglican/ Last Sunday is at the top of the feed: Lent 4. You won't see me in this one except at the end when I bring my daughters to the rail but you can hear me singing harmony on "I Surrender All." We had made some adjustments to the liturgy and Fr. Tom, the first priest up, was confused. Our parish is rather low church on the Continuing spectrum. The rector is a bit of an outlier for the jurisdiction (OAC). You would typically only see this sort of churchmanship in the AOC and UECNA. I'll hunt around for videos of more typical continuing services done well. I know a couple of likely spots.
Typically about 2 dozen. On the rare occasions when everyone turns out its between 45-50. This brings up a fairly logical question: why do you have 3 priests? (I was in the Dallas airport a while back wearing clericals and riding the transport to the rental car center when an AoG member began asking me a hundred questions and then berated me for not having a church of at least 300 people of my own.) And there's a bit of story to that. When I moved back to Virginia from Texas I was a postulant. Then I became the deacon. While serving as the deacon I learned of Fr. Tom, who is in another jurisdiction. He lives halfway across town from me and had been running a mission. The town we live in is rather heavily influenced by military activity and his mission had collapsed because all of his people had unfortunately transferred to new posts within the same calendar year. He was in a dark place personally and spiritually and his bishop instructed him to just go in with us for a while. Our bishop issued permission for him to serve within the parish. We've been able to work productively together and he hasn't left to attempt a relaunch of his mission. I forgot to answer the question about confession over a live-stream earlier. I don't know that many of these questions have been thought about to any degree. My thought with respect to confession and absolution is that it would be valid via a live-stream because, in that instance, the minister is acting as a mouthpiece (or in the prophetic office!) declaring unto the penitents what has already been declared by divine inspiration in the Scriptures.
The advantage is: We know and care for one another better. Much more difficult knowing and caring for strangers in a large crowd. .
I have attached a copy of the leaflet produced in my Parish. I accept that it will not be to everyone's taste, and is very much a contemporary rite form, however in these trying times I thought I might share it, as it might be helpful for some, one way or another. In basic outline it is a form of ante communion with spiritual communion.
Indeed, quantity doesn't count for much if anything. If my ACNA parish had a thousand attendees for the 10:30 service, I would not have been too happy to attend there! Been to a megachurch, done with that. There's something to be said for a small church, and for a rector who could call me by name the second time he served me the Eucharist. He has not ceased holding Sunday services, by the way, for those who wish to attend. But very few of us do, and we all sit far away from one another and all that.
I saw a plan one Lutheran diocese had come out with to continue having Holy Communion. The pastors were instructed to record their sermons in advance and the congregants can watch that at home at their leisure. They released an abridged liturgy that takes about 15 minutes to say and serve 10 people. Here's where it gets mildly interesting: to participate you must schedule yourself in one of the appointed time slots (it was strongly encouraged that parishes offer the service four times in a Sunday - thus essentially filling the same amount of time that would be allotted for a full length service). I was joking with my organist last week. She hadn't bothered to make a bulletin so I asked her how I was going to take my church bulletin to Zaxby's (a chicken sandwich, wings, and tenders place) and get 10% off on my order It's a Sunday special they run at my closest store. Fr. Tom and I are going to shoot some videos together in the next week or so. I've got a good camera and he's got a proper microphone and we both have a fair amount of church paraphernalia in our homes. I'm working up a study of Tobit and he's working I think on a series on teaching lay people how to navigate the BCP.
In the UK all churches are closed, all gatherings cancelled, all over 70's isolated, confirmed Covid19 deaths now over 1000 and daily deaths doubling every day. All human contact outside isolation to be limited to at least 2 metres distance at all times. More stringent measures in reserve as things deteriorate. In US Covid deaths now over 2000 and daily total doubling every 2 days. If people are still meeting this way in USA it does not auger well for you all. Incubation period estimated to be 4-10 days, no discernable symptoms until after at least 4th day. Virus particularly therefore transmissable and virulently infectious. Be warned. Protect others by behaving responsibly.
There were fewer attendees this Sunday than last. Not enough to even come close to filling the rail at Communion time. No handshaking; we waved the sign of peace at one another. The rector shook my elbow. We are being prudent. Nonetheless, God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2Tim 1:7 Certainly, some people are dying. People die from flu every year, too. People die from all sorts of causes. In fact, every human being on earth has about a 100% chance of dying sometime. There's no stopping it. Paul likened our bodies to 'tents,' that is, temporary dwellings. The important thing for each person is to trust in God the Son before it happens. I hope, pray, believe and predict that 6 months from now we will look back at this virus and say, "Wow, the mortality rate wasn't nearly as high as we thought it would be. Why were we so worked up about it?"
Glad to see you people over the pond are beginning to take this seriously. All in all, the proper attitude must necessarily be, assume we may be infectious ourselves and so avoid passing on to others. Rather than fearfully assuming we are clear and others might give it to us. That I think is a positive, responsibe and Christian attitude. Go safely.
There are entire countries, like France and Italy, where one must obtain a written permit before going outside. That's asinine. What harm will it do for a person to walk out the door, stand in the sunshine, move around in his yard, or even walk down the street or road (assuming he's not getting close to anyone else)? If a person wants to get in his vehicle and go camp alone in the woods, who is he harming? But that is how governments are. But what might be even worse than ridiculously over-restrictive governments is when people take it upon themselves to become "thought and behavior police" in their own right. It hasn't happened on this forum, but on other forums I've witnessed self-righteous do-gooders become downright nasty as they 'put the careless fools in their place' and talk down to them. Thank God no one here is like that!