Saturday 2nd. May, 2020
It’s been a busy week! What has been different is that Tom Nicholson has now retired and I am interim moderator at Gordon, Greenlaw, Legerwood and Westruther. Now you might wonder what that actually means given that we are all in lockdown. What it has meant in practice is that I have prepared services for Gordon, Greenlaw and Legerwood on line. Of course, they are basically the same service with different topping and tailing (you can see them on the new page I have inserted into our web-site – ‘Gordon, Greenlaw, Legerwood and Westruther’ tab at the top of each page of our website).
It would have been simpler if I could just have re-badged our Fogo Service but because we are part way through a series, I didn’t think that would be appropriate. I thought of starting their services at the beginning of our series but two reasons made me think that wouldn’t be appropriate either. First, some of the folk may already have shared in our services and second, there wouldn’t be enough Sundays before we run into Pentecost. So there we are. This week has been spent putting services together.
Now I promise not to talk about technology this week. I’ve done too much of that. But I would like to say a bit about preparing and delivering services on line. The first two or three weeks I found it very satisfying. I was able to strive towards getting something just right. I never quite got there but I felt I was getting nearer each week. In fact I felt that if I carried on doing this for a few more weeks I might get as close as I could to getting it right.
It was then that I realised that there was something missing. What it is, is interaction with real people. When I conduct a service in church I may not ever get it quite right but I am able to see how people are responding. I can pick up vibes. I can gauge how I need to adapt – I can see when I am boring folk rigid. But once something is online I haven’t a clue how appropriate what I have provided is turning out to be. You can’t communicate without feedback. Even a service where one person is basically running the show is a two-way process and that’s what I am missing. Often in Church I come out of the service feeling not only that I have worshipped with friends but that God has been very close to us during our worship. It’s difficult to feel that speaking into a camera, although sharing on a Sunday morning and knowing that others are doing the same at the same moment can feel very special.
I’m also missing the fact that our services used to have so much participation but that just isn’t possible now that we are in lockdown. However, I am being kept going by our daily meditations. I’m really taken by some of the insights which have been shared. I’m also enormously impressed by the way that folk are producing what they do with very little equipment. If it didn’t sound patronising, I would say how much everyone has developed during the time these meditations have been being prepared. It has been good for all of us who have participated. It would be good to welcome some more folk into the team!
It also remains true that our Sunday morning services are shared by many more folk than ever came to church in the days before lockdown. So, we will have to think about what this means when we can eventually return to our beautiful church.
I really enjoy our coffee and chat sessions after church. I’m picking up that some of us are finding it quite difficult to have real conversations on Zoom. It is really great to see everyone, but naturally we seem to say the same things each week. I hope that won’t stop folk from joining us because what is special is to see everyone. I think we have to have a definite close at 12 noon and that we have to say to everyone that it is all right to pop in to the Zoom room for just a few minutes and then to wave good-bye and move on. I also think it might be quite good to have something to talk about for a few minutes; that way we might share our news and then for those who wished we might have a themed discussion – perhaps on what we could be doing as a congregation in these strange times. Someone might have a great idea which would be really helpful for us.
A couple which have been floated with me are first that we might have a short ten-minute evening prayer on zoom once a week (say Wednesday) at (say) 7.30 p.m. The second idea is that we could put together a short news programme with folk giving to me by Zoom a brief statement of what is going on which has caught their imagination, and then I, or someone else who wished to do it, edit it into a magazine programme which we would showcase on our web-site and on FaceBook. After all the BBC regularly uses Zoom and similar platforms in its programmes so why shouldn’t we. Such a programme might reach folk in our parish who don’t as yet join our online worship. What do you think?
It’s now quite late on Saturday night so I’ll upload this to my blog page and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow.