Online Worship in the Age of the Corona Virus

When the Corona Virus interrupted the ability of St. Michael’s members to meet for worship together at the chapel, our pastor, Rev Erin Bair, offered different options to support our spiritual lives. One option was to join her online through U-Tube for a live worship from our homes on our computers.  

I wondered what an online live worship experience be like. Would technology work to help us feel connected to our pastor and the other members of our church community? Or would it only add to sense of isolation and disconnection? Would the video and audio connection be smooth, clear and work? Could we feel our pastor and each other? Ahead of time pastor Erin emailed a copy of the worship guide for Sunday, suggested if we had a copy of the Book of Common Prayer what pages to turn to, and provided the instructions on how to join the session. 

So, Sunday morning, Mar 22, Ray, Nikki and I gathered in our home office and checked into the online site about 10 minutes before the scheduled start of 10:30am.  Ray held the Book of Common Prayer and had printed out 2 copies of the service for Nikki and I.  We read the greetings from other members in the chat window and added our own.  

Then the video and audio came on. It showed Pastor Erin sitting in her arm chair, a picture of our chapel on the table to her immediate left next to a lamp, and a window with curtain behind her. She let us know the chat feature could be used to add our own prayers which she would then include in her prayers at the end. 

For the first 10 minutes the audio and video feed was interrupted by buffering every 20-30 seconds. So we coped by reading aloud along with the pastor, the pastors prayers and the congregation prayers. We synchronized our voices with hers, which maintained continuity and a sense of connection. Then the buffering stopped.  

I was glad because then we could hear the third reading, the gospel clearly. We then resumed listening and our Pastor’s personality came to the forefront. We could feel her presence.  And I began to feel I was receiving what I needed spiritually and emotionally. The sense of being with her came up. 

We really enjoyed the sermon because our pastor does not avoid the hard topics that trouble most of us. She jumped right into the hard topic of suffering! She based it on the reading from Job, who was a just person and suffered tremendously.  It was helpful to hear how trusting God allows God to “walk with us” as we walk through hard times. This choice to trust maintains not only our connection to God, it also allows God to work through us in the lives of others, to bring God’s larger plans and purposes into the present in the lives of many. However, if we don’t trust God and decide to do life on our own, then we choose to do life cut off from God. Wow! 

Pastor Erin then prayed closing prayers, and added in prayers different members had suggested in the chat feature. I came away from the experience feeling we had really worshipped together. We will join her again this Sunday.