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Ship of Fools: All Saints, Boise, Idaho, USA


imageShip of Fools: All Saints, Boise, Idaho, USA

Morning has broken – the microphone and video feed, that is

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Comments

  • Oh dear, this sounds pretty dire, at least from the technical point of view! Mind you, many years ago I attended a service where the Vicar was wearing a microphone UNDER his cassock and stole, so not only was the sound muffled but we gotb loud crunkly noises whenever he moved!

    Could I take you up on one point? You write, "Every video meant for public consumption needs to be supervised by a director and a sound technician". Clearly this is a Good Thing but, for the majority of "ordinary" churches in the UK, it is an impossible counsel of perfection. I'm afraid the resources - both technical and in personnel - available to many of us are extremely limited.
  • But if the congregation consists of more than one person -- even as few as a half dozen -- surely one of them could stand behind the camera, look at the screen, and judge whether or not anyone is hidden or has a candle growing out of his head, etc. And surely another of them could put on a pair of headphones and judge whether or not everything can be heard clearly. It doesn't take technically trained people to do this, although admittedly that would be highly desirable.
  • Yes, that is so, though some of the otherwise amateur videos are of very high quality, IMHO.

    Our Parish Mass was live-streamed on Facebook yesterday, the Director's and Sound Technician's jobs being carried out by one person, to wit, our churchwarden.

    He had a bit of difficulty in finding a suitable location for his camera team mobile phone, but will try a few different places before next Sunday's offering. On the whole, though, I think it worked well.

    Another of our congregation has live-streamed a couple of weekday services from our Lady Chapel, and they, too, have been quite well done.

    It helps (a) that we have good acoustics in the Church, (b) that FatherInCharge wears a state-of-the-art neck mike, and (c) that he has a voice which carries well anyway!

    I wholly concur, however, with Miss Amanda's remarks about visible legs and shorts.

    In Church - Are Outrage!
    :lol:
  • In the UK, during lockdown, only an officiant was permitted to be inside a church building while recording/broadcasting. No longer true now, and of course that ruling didn't apply to services from clerical gardens or kitchens!
  • For All Saints Boise, the celebrant, server, two musicians and one reader were present inside the church.
  • Until and including last Sunday, that is four more people than were permitted here (Wales).
  • Are churches in Idaho now permitted to have a 'congregation' at public worship, rather than just the 'staff'?

    Minimalist worship to the nth degree seems to be the rule in England AFAICS. Our Cathedral Eucharist on Sunday had a staff of two - the Dean, who presided, read the Prayers, and distributed Communion, along with the Bishop, who read the Lessons and preached.

    Several lay stewards/sidespersons were in attendance, too, of course, but there was no procession, no crucifer, acolytes, servers, robed choir (or any singers at all, come to that) etc. etc.

    There was some quiet music before the service, presumably played by one of the cathedral organists, very much physically-distanced by being up in the organ loft!
  • I believe it's optional in Idaho. The recommendation is to limit the size of the congregation in keeping with the size of the building. Ten in a chapel is not safe; ten in a cathedral might be.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Definitely no choir here, nor any singing. Singing projects more air from the lungs than does speaking, projects that air more powerfully and a further distance, and that air could carry germs. We have had choral singing in the Zoom services. Members of a very small choir sing their parts in different locations, and with some miracle of technology these parts and the organ are joined together to be broadcast.
  • Yes, I've seen that done, and seamlessly. Very neat!

    Alas, not all of us possess the skills and equipment necessary to achieve such a good result, but we're trying...very trying...
  • I really shouldn't nitpick. The All Saints Boise service was very well done from a liturgical point of view (except for the reader's choice of outfit), and what flaws I found were strictly of a technical nature.

    I'm not all that familiar with morning prayer, though. It is customary for the priest to remain sitting for the gospel and sermon?

    I've seen good virtual services and bad virtual services. We're at the mercy of the technology, but I do think that an effort should be made to see to it that the technology intrudes as little as possible.
  • Yes, indeed.

    One aspect of virtual services is that they allow those taking part to actually find out what they look (and sound) like! This can be a Salutary Experience...

    Memo to self - wear a decent jacket to Church next Sunday...
    :open_mouth:
  • I'm not all that familiar with morning prayer, though. It is customary for the priest to remain sitting for the gospel and sermon?
    No, not in my experience. Maybe they were trying to limit camera movement?

  • All the more reason to have a director -- or at least a cameraman, who could pan the camera as needed.
  • Yes, although if you're relying on your churchwarden with his Smartphone (and no tripod!), there may be an element of camera-shake, or movement.

    A video of the Easter Sunday Eucharist from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden, was quite professionally done, although at certain points in the service, one of the two (I think) camera operators came into view...and it looked as though he had some quite sophisticated kit... :grimace:

    Reverting to the MW Report for a moment - I guess the 'Gospel' would actually be the second Lesson at Morning Prayer, so not accompanied by the Acclamation, standing etc., that one would expect at the Eucharist.

    What's with the green stole, though? In the C of E, the customary vesture at MP would be cassock, surplice, and black scarf (or blue for licensed Lay Reader). Use of the coloured stole is mostly found in Eucharistic/sacramental services hereabouts.
  • I don't fault him for the stole, though. I would have done so if he were in street clothes.

    I don't recall how the gospel reading was characterized in the downloadable service sheet or whether it was surrounded by acclamations.

    I observed no camera shake, so I assume the camera (even if only a smartphone) was mounted on a tripod. I find that a selfie stick, with the "stick" portion removed, attaches well to my tripod.
  • A tripod would appear to be a Good Buy. I shall mention it to our churchwarden on Sunday...

    All this playing about with New Toys is such fun, no?
    :wink:

    Not wearing coloured stoles at Offices seems to be a C of E thing - I've noticed that many other liturgically-conscious churches DO use a stole (colour of the season, of course).

    I doubt if Our Lord and His Blessed Mother worry too much about it...
  • It makes them smile.
  • Not wearing coloured stoles at Offices seems to be a C of E thing - I've noticed that many other liturgically-conscious churches DO use a stole (colour of the season, of course).
    No, I’m used to seeing scarves rather than stoles at Morning Prayer in the Episcopal Church, too. Scarves here traditionally have the arms the diocese on one end and the arms of the wearer’s seminary on the other end. As it happens, a week or so ago, I watched Morning Prayer from the Episcopal parish in my hometown. The priest wore cassock, surplice and black scarf.

    That said, the service I watched last week was the first Morning Prayer I’d “been to” in many years. Morning Prayer seems to have become fairly uncommon in TEC since the 1979 Prayerbook and the move to the Eucharist as the primary Sunday service. (I think it’s seen some revival in these days of streaming services.) I wonder—perhaps not all clergy, particularly younger ones, have scarves like they once might have?

  • I think there's been a bit of a revival of Morning Prayer (of some sort - mostly AIUI in its contemporary form) in the UK, as it's not too hard to live-stream.

    One of our Diocesan clergy has been providing such a service from her home, with some lovely icons in the background (rather than the serried, and distracting, ranks of books, whose titles one is constantly trying to read...). On the occasion I tuned in, she was neatly vested in cassock-alb and cream/white stole (it was one of the Eastertide Sundays).

    I wonder if she wore the coloured stole simply to emphasise the liturgical season, as perhaps did the minister in the MW Report?
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