“A Great Cloud of Witnesses in the Cloud” as Anglicans Worship Online

Mar 21, 2020 by Jill

by Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism:

Sunday evening the Rev. Robbie Pruitt tapped his phone and began a livestream for the youth gathering of Christ the King Anglican Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

“I’m in my daughter’s bedroom doing Facebook Live because it is actually the quietest place in the house,” Pruitt, the Pastoral Associate and Director of Youth Ministry, explained to the virtually assembled. He launched into a talk about Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John chapter 4 and “social distancing” that culture prompted between Jews and Samaritans.

Amidst quarantines and “social distancing” enacted by civil authorities seeking to limit transmission of COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus), Anglican Christians have found themselves limited in their ability to continue worship services as usual. Christ the King (CTK) is among a widening number of parishes employing a patchwork of mobile technologies to keep church congregations connected.

What this looks like in practice varies by ministry. Smaller congregations are using video conference products like Zoom and Google Hangouts that facilitate a high level of interaction. Larger congregations are offering video via Facebook Live or Vimeo, which are mostly unidirectional but afford some interaction through comment threads.

“We had never actually done a service live, this was our first time out of the box,” Pruitt explained of the main Sunday service earlier that day, with video enabling the priest to make the sign of the cross when giving a blessing. “As high-touch as we can be with high tech, the better.”

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Read also: Free tools to help you lead your church through crisis, Barna Group