As we prepare to say farewell (or good riddance) to 2020, I realised how blurred my memory of historic events has already become.
On the 15th March we worshipped in St Chad's - All Age Worship in the morning and a Communion service in the evening. We were already aware of the rise in infections and the risks associated with shaking hands and sharing the common cup. On the 17th March came the Governments announcement of the suspension of public gatherings, including worship, and so on the 18th March I did Morning Prayer on my own, accompanied by my phone connected to Facebook - my first livestream - and the following Sunday, 22nd March, I did a livestream on Facebook in the morning and Faith and I joined in the National Prayer initiative, again on Facebook.
The following Wednesday, 25th March, Faith and I began livestreaming Morning Prayer on Facebook each week and Trev uploaded videos for our Sunday worship on the 29th March. We produced videos for Palm Sunday (5th April), Maundy Thursday (9th), Good Friday (10th) and Easter Sunday (12th). Those first attempts were quite clunky - often we relied on creating a playlist of videos with talking head segments and using music from outside sources. when they worked, they were fine, but sometimes it was hard to know whether we were following the service in the right order and so it was occasionally disorientating.
I began exploring for alternative solutions and came across a package called OBS. On the 26th April, Faith and I livestreamed an informal Evening Worship on YouTube; praying and singing live. This certainly started our move towards trying to encourage interaction with comments and responses.
Steve, Trev and I shared out the Sunday services and I also uploaded a term's worth of Collective Worship for the Schools. On Trinity Sunday, 7th June, I attempted a "live" Morning Worship over Facebook and YouTube - I recall that YouTube didn't work live, although there is a recording of the service there. By the 17th June I was using Restream to allow me to stream simultaneously over Facebook and YouTube, which allowed the maximum of interaction live whilst still allowing people to watch on catch up if they wished. I had also migrated to the use of Ecamm Live, which I found more slick than OBS.
Steve and Trev finished their curacies over the June and July, and so I took over producing the bulk of morning services (although we included as many other voices as possible) and led these live or uploaded to cover the summer months and some leave during August.
By the 30th August there had been changes made to the Government's guidance and so we arranged for an Evening Prayer in Church with Zoom and Google Meet running. I had imagined half a dozen or so would come (those without internet connection) and so arranged some chairs in the side chapel - socially distanced, of course. I was surprised to have 20 people there - about as many as we could safely seat. We planned to have Evening Prayer (although we morphed into Evening Worship) on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month.
On the 29th September we had the Memorial Service for Joyce Hughes, and so it became important to mark out socially distanced seating in the main worship space, and so we moved from the side chapel to the main space once we had set up the building and planned for entry and exit, cleaning and so forth as we went. As we become assured of how to work in Church we planned for All Saints, 1st November, with a Morning and Evening Worship (kindly led by Jacquie, Adrian and Matthew) as it was the end of half term. This arrangement allowed for the difficulty in others livestreaming. Afterwards, we realised the pressure on wiping down surfaces with two services on the same day, and so we revised our plans for later months accordingly. However, by the 1st November the Government had already announced plans for what we called Lockdown2 to begin on Thursday 5th November which suspended our worshipping in Church for a period. We were caught between a rock and a hard place; wanting to set an example of following the Government guidance even if it meant going without for ourselves, and wanting to continue to meet and encourage each other. It was clear from conversations that some were finding lockdown and the restrictions were taking an enormous toll on their mental well-being and resilience.
The relaxation of some restrictions on the 3rd December meant that on the 6th we were able to meet again for Evening Worship.
Outside this cycle of being live online for Wednesdays and Sundays it should also be noted that a group of us (following the introduction of the 'rule of six') began to record songs and hymns on the 2nd June, a Tuesday morning. This had to move to a Tuesday afternoon so that we could have some shade as we sang, and then when the rules were clarified we were able to move into the building, recording singing in the worship space from the 5th October. This provided recorded versions to use online, at Evening Worship and also at Memorial Services and Funerals.
On the 31st March I had a Skype call to Liz at Olive Tree House and that began a pattern of a Tuesday afternoon Skype with Olive Tree House and Rose Garden. Some weeks there would be little to talk about, but on others the residents wanted to talk for much longer. It was actually a real pleasure to get to know some of the residents far better than had been possible doing a short service in a lounge with all the noise and background. I have discussed family, travel, cars, knitting as well as shared tears and tried to help remembering by searching the internet to find missing pieces of stories and people.
We end 2020 in Tier 3 here in South Glos but with news of a vaccine starting to be rolled out. We are trying to keep a rolling two month plan for our worship so we can have an idea of where we will be, but allow for rapid amendments if needed.
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