Ship of Fools: All Saints, Boise, Idaho, USA
The Mystery Worshipper
Shipmate
Ship of Fools: All Saints, Boise, Idaho, USA
Morning has broken – the microphone and video feed, that is
Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here
Comments
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.
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!
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!
Alas, not all of us possess the skills and equipment necessary to achieve such a good result, but we're trying...very trying...
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.
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...
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...
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 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.
All this playing about with New Toys is such fun, no?
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...
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?
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?