FR. DAVID’S BLOG OF 10/9/2020 — We hope to live stream our worship services via video soon!
Since Easter Sunday we have been pre-recording our Sunday morning worship services. Pre-recording has allowed us to stay safe and healthy during this time of pandemic. Participants (choir, lectors, acolyte, priest and organist) schedule a good time to practice and record, usually separate from one another. Once all the parts of the video are recorded, David Christopher puts the service together and provides all of us the chance to worship even though apart from one another.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in the spring, the Episcopal Church in Delaware has offered parishes technological grants thanks to the Barnabas Fund. Recently we were awarded one of these grants. This will allow us to increase our online presence in the next couple of months, in three stages.
In Stage One, we will continue to offer our pre-recorded services the way we have done since the spring. At the same time, we will install the new equipment and test it.
Once the new audio/video system seems to be glitch free, we will move to Stage Two. We will continue to offer pre-recorded services, but they will be recorded live, with all the participants together in the same place at the same time. Be assured that participants will wear masks and be socially distant from one another. This will allow us to practice the elements of the liturgy together.
Stage Three will be our return to live streaming our service, I hope in early November. Of course, all this could change, and I will be sure to keep you updated if this proposed schedule has to be modified.
This new audio/video equipment will also allow us to slowly plan for the time we will be able to gather again in person on Sunday morning. There is no timetable for this last piece as there are many things we will have to consider in developing a plan that will have to be certified by the diocese.
I am looking forward to having this new equipment installed as it will feel like we are moving towards a new normal later in 2020 and early 2021.
Peace,
Fr. David, OA
