Worship Live-Stream Recommendations

13

Comments

  • I'm sure you're not the only one at all!
    :wink:

    For others, though, live-streamed services from their own church are a useful way of keeping in touch. I'm watching services from different churches, and that's been helpful, too - I've certainly been treated to a number of excellent, and challenging, sermons...
  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    We're not live streaming but a pre-recorded mass is put on You Tube at 10.00 each Sunday (I don't know why 10 since our normal time is 10.30). Live streaming needs to be technically sophisticated in order to include more than one person leading, whether in church or elsewhere. At least the way we do it can include readings, sermon and intercessions by different people. Either way it is artificial and far from ideal. What I find both encouraging and sad at the same time, is the fact that during the Peace photographs of individual congregation members are flashed up one after another. Sad, because we are not seeing them in person, but even more so because many people never got round to, or were technically unable to, submit their photos in the first place. So those who are most likely to be marginalised IRL are even more marginalised online.
  • Could you get someone to draw pictures of those who are missing,or at least include their names? If you're going to try an inclusive gesture like that it needs to be fully inclusive.
  • Indeed it does.

    I see where they're coming from, as it were, but IMHO they would have done better to leave out The Peace (apart from the actual words, perhaps).
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    No, perhaps because we're using Zoom on a basis that allows a fair bit of time for conversation afterwards.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Oblatus wrote: »
    Galilit wrote: »
    Almy is still closed for corona ... but are offering 25% discount for now and shipping when they do open:
    https://www.almy.com/Product/32210

    I'd probably go for this one, in the most giant size available.

    Do you have a big head? (Apologies in advance)
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited June 2020
    Alan29 wrote: »
    Am I the only one who finds live streamed services only increase my sense of separation from my church community?
    For that reason I don't watch them.

    No, you're not. We're doing Morning Prayer on zoom, which is very much participatory. A dozen or more of the congregation take it in turns to lead a part of the service.

    Watching a livestream doesn't feel like that at all. To me, it's really hard to participate with a video. I'm very much hoping that when we restart physical church, we also continue zoom morning prayer, rather than just streaming / recording our physical service. But we're about to poll the congregation to see what other people want.
  • DardaDarda Shipmate
    Our (C of E) place has a pre-recorded Sunday service that goes out as a YouTube "première" at 9.30. Different people (including children) are involved with Bible readings, sermon, prayer and songs (usually recorded by two different couples,). For Trinity Sunday we had "And Can It Be" recorded individually by 12 instrumentalists and 9 singers - all edited together by one of our members. Being a "première", there is also the live chat facility where anyone can type and read comments for 30 minutes before and during the service. We then have 30 minutes after service coffee by Zoom, splitting into "rooms" of 6 - 8 people. This all takes a lot of time and effort by a dedicated team, more than just live streaming from a single camera I think. However, it is really helping to keep our church community together, in some ways more so than before when we had 3 separate Sunday services with congregations who didn't always mix. It's also been encouraging to see so many people mastering Zoom who you might think wouldn't manage it. I appreciate this is only possible because some of our 200+ members have the necessary skills; not all churches are so fortunate.
  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    St Augustine's (RC) church in Coatbridge,Scotland has a Mass streamed LIVE every day at 10 a.m. including Sundays. It was used as a venue for Easter Sunday Mass by the BBC (perhaps only for Scotland) and the BBC have been there fairly recently setting up various cameras which give several angles during the service,not just one webcam.. Since there is also a deacon who is present it is not just a one man 'show'. The priest is very warm and welcoming, (but he is also very Catholic.)
  • OblatusOblatus Shipmate
    Alan29 wrote: »
    Am I the only one who finds live streamed services only increase my sense of separation from my church community?
    For that reason I don't watch them.

    Our Evening Prayer on Zoom generally involves parceling out bits for participants to do, like read a lesson or canticle, or recite the Creed (as reciting things together doesn't work well at all, due to lag). We have a designated Responder who says every other psalm verse, the Rs of the V/Rs, etc. That experience is a good one IMO, even when I enter into it reluctantly like when it's my turn to be Officiant. I end up glad I attended.

    I did feel quite separated this past Sunday, though, when Mass was said via Zoom at 9am, an hour that's too early for me, so I figured I'd watch the replay. But there wasn't one. Then I tried to watch St Thomas', Fifth Avenue, instead, and it kept freezing every 20-30 seconds so was unwatchable. I still feel deprived of a Trinity Sunday Mass. But we move on...hoping for better luck for Corpus Christi, which could feel bad due to not getting to receive the Sacrament on the day when it is celebrated with extra intensity, but being able to watch at least, and hear it led with familiar voices and mannerisms, feels like at least a minimal connection.
  • Alan29Alan29 Shipmate
    Alan29 wrote: »
    Am I the only one who finds live streamed services only increase my sense of separation from my church community?
    For that reason I don't watch them.

    On the other hand my wife has watched Mass from an Irish convent every week. She has got to know the sisters and their chaplain, and familiar enough with their music to sing along. While the sisters communicate there is a voice-over inviting listeners to communicate in spirit with them.
    They are apparently the opposite of the gloomy and forbidding nuns of my childhood, and they celebrate the liturgy with joy.
  • ChoristerChorister Shipmate
    edited June 2020
    I found I was missing the singing. Some CofE churches have managed to get a licence to use the singing of others in their worship, providing words so that you can join in. For example, at this church you can join in with the choral scholars of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. As that was a church I attended on my (one-time) weekly visits to London, that suits very well indeed. Thank goodness for music in worship!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    We found that community singing did not work very well on Zoom, and even spoken responses can cause confusion. The answer was to leave the spoken responses but to cut out congregational singing, whether of hymns or the setting of the Eucharist.
  • Gee D wrote: »
    We found that community singing did not work very well on Zoom, and even spoken responses can cause confusion. The answer was to leave the spoken responses but to cut out congregational singing, whether of hymns or the setting of the Eucharist.
    We use YouTube for streaming, and we’ve retained responses/unison prayers and hymns/sung responses. It’s just that you can’t hear anyone speaking or singing except the handful of people in the church—which typically includes one member of the choir to “lead” the singing—and yourself plus anyone watching the stream with you. It’s worked okay.

    My wife and I have agreed that the streams make us miss the community even more, but at the same time we’re grateful for how it keeps us connected. It’s sort of a both/and for us, not either/or.

  • Actually from what I have seen on the Iona Community Weekly Office what seems to work best is to use a recording with a good volume and pace to lead the singing. Then it becomes the dominant sound and other voices tend to blend to the background. So people joining in end up being a minor distraction. Of course, it is useful that it is Iona Community so they have many fine recordings that can do this without needing to worry over performance rights.
  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    A friend lent me today a copy of the Radio Times of 25th May 1947.It had been kept by someone a long time ago in celebration of the 80th birthday of Queen Mary, widow of King George V.
    What was interesting, to me at least ,was the space given to religious broadcasts on the Sunday. These would mainly have been live streamed.
    The Sunday was Whit-Sunday.,written large on each page. Few people would nowadays know that unless they were churchgoers.
    On the Home Service at 9.30 a.m. there was a Parish Communion, from the Priory Church of Boxgrove,Sussex. The celebrant and preacher was Rev Eric Popham with a devotional commentary by Rev Cyril Taylor. The Radio times listed all the parts of the service,
    Introit,Ninefold Kyrie etc including 'at the consecration an act of devotion from the studio,Gloria in excelsis by Merbecke.'

    On the evening of the same day at 7.45 p.m.there was an ecumenical service (in English,I presume) from la cathédrale de St Pierre in Geneva in connection with the setting up of the World Council of Churches.

    And at 10.30 p.m there was 'The Epilogue with a Psalm and a Reading.

    Even on the Light Programme there was a People's Service at 11.30 a.m. from St Nicholas, Manor Park, London, conducted by Father J.C. Heenan (Do we know this name ?)

    And for good measure there was at 9p.m. the Sunday Half Hour of Community singing
    from the Garrison Church in Udine, Northern Italy, led by the choir of the Welch (sic) Regiment.

    If you wanted more Vera Lynn would be singing at 9.30 p.m. Changed days now.
  • Quite an impressive line-up!

    The BBC used to broadcast a Parish Communion, or equivalent Morning Worship from another denomination, on Sundays at about 10am (IIRC).

    There was a time - round about 1988-89 - when I was out of the (church) loop, and often used to watch this broadcast.

    One of the clergy in our Diocese, who is something of a whizz-kid with media technology, has produced some sort of guidance as to how to cash in on the 'online worship/virtual services' thingy.

    It came today as part of our regular weekly email from Head Office, but I haven't been able to look at it yet (broadband too s l o o o o o w...).

    The priest concerned has produced some very high-quality films, animations etc. in the past, so it should be good!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Nick Tamen wrote: »
    Gee D wrote: »
    We found that community singing did not work very well on Zoom, and even spoken responses can cause confusion. The answer was to leave the spoken responses but to cut out congregational singing, whether of hymns or the setting of the Eucharist.
    We use YouTube for streaming, and we’ve retained responses/unison prayers and hymns/sung responses. It’s just that you can’t hear anyone speaking or singing except the handful of people in the church—which typically includes one member of the choir to “lead” the singing—and yourself plus anyone watching the stream with you. It’s worked okay.

    My wife and I have agreed that the streams make us miss the community even more, but at the same time we’re grateful for how it keeps us connected. It’s sort of a both/and for us, not either/or.

    A major advantage of Zoom is that it allows discussion/social chat both before and after the service itself. At this stage, there's no-one "in the church" with clergy leading from their studies. The present hope is that we'll be back to live, in person, services by the end of August, still observing the general restrictions of 4 square metres for each person and the 1.5 metres apart (household members excluded from this latter). That depends upon present levels of fresh infection being maintained. With 3 new cases yesterday in Victoria that's looking less likely than it did this time last week..
  • The little video I referred to earlier turned out to be a neat animation, encouraging churches to continue 'online' provision for those who are just looking, possibly church-hopping, or, perhaps more importantly, are simply afraid to come through the church door - however open and welcoming it may be.

    There was also a link to one of the same priest's Eastertide online services - a simple service of Morning Prayer (Common Worship, I think), but with various interpolations (music, singing, readings, prayers).

    It occurred to me that Our Place might be able to provide something in parallel to our restored Sunday Mass, perhaps by broadcasting A Service of the Word (same Sunday Collect, Psalm, Readings) either at the same time, or maybe later in the day (after lunch!).

    Such a service could, of course, be pre-recorded. We ourselves don't really have the technological resources needed, but our friendly next-door charismatic-evo parish certainly does...if we ask them nicely, I wonder if they'd be prepared to help?
  • DardaDarda Shipmate
    At our Zoom home group last night we attempted to sing Happy Birthday to one of our members. It was, of course, a disaster as voices were totally out of sync. (Some were also out of tune, but Zoom can't be blamed for that😄)
  • I am not sure. The Iona Community has a weekly office. During the office, the music is streamed and everyone is muted. However, after going to the cloisters for a chat we come back together and all sing an Iona together over zoom. IMO, it works particularly well if they use a CD with the piece on to lead. That is so dominant that the singing seems to blend into it while taking while taking the smoothness off a professional recording.
  • Jengie Jon wrote: »
    IMO, it works particularly well if they use a CD with the piece on to lead. That is so dominant that the singing seems to blend into it while taking while taking the smoothness off a professional recording.

    The loop delay on zoom is a large fraction of a second. If you're singing something slow and drone-y, I can see it being OK - basically as long as what you're singing doesn't have structure on a timescale shorter than a second or so.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited June 2020
    Ha!

    FatherInCharge made the tactical error :lol: of live-streaming his solitary Mass for the Feast of SS Peter & Paul today (it's a Significant Anniversary of his ordination as priest...).

    With the help of a 20-something in the congregation (we see him about once a month or so - he often has to work on a Sunday :grimace: ), the Deed was Done, and, IMHO, done rather well. It was lovely to see one of our Chapels in use again, even if there was no congregation (other than the cameraman, who duly observed silence, social distancing, and abstention from Communion).

    I now hope that we can form some sort of tech-savvy team to provide some sort of online thingy, even if only on special occasions, and not necessarily every Sunday.

    As I think I've said before, The Plague and The Lockdown are at least bringing out hitherto hidden talents in people who have not, in the past, for various good reasons, been particularly forthcoming...
  • @Alan29 It is a very odd thing this live streaming stuff!

    Call me all manner of names, but I am much preferring a pre recorded service and that from a church where I don’t know anyone.

    That way (for me anyway ) it ends up more like being on holiday and worshipping as a visitor.
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    Apparently Walsingham are now going to do regular live stream masses for those who can't go to church still. If some places from all traditions keep providing an online presence, then provision for those who can't get to church for a variety of reasons will be improved, which is a bit of a silver lining in all this new way of working.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    At the suggestion of a Shipmate, we discovered Old St Paul's Edinburgh -= and fortunately the time difference works to our advantage, with the service at 7.30 pm. It seems a church where we would be happy to be parishioners.
  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    Gee D wrote: »
    At the suggestion of a Shipmate, we discovered Old St Paul's Edinburgh -= and fortunately the time difference works to our advantage, with the service at 7.30 pm. It seems a church where we would be happy to be parishioners.

    We know the organist there quite well.....
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    Oooh .... I just prayed their Compline (recorded) ... what a lovely little Lady Chapel, a super triptych of the Annunciation, and nice big candles for atmospheric lighting. And you can download or print the Order of Service with traditional musical notation and everything. (I can be a nun for 20 minutes! Every night!)

    Much better than getting up in the morning at silly o'clock for St Mark's, Seattle. (Which I only did once and runied my biological-theological clock for a week)
  • Galilit wrote: »
    Much better than getting up in the morning at silly o'clock for St Mark's, Seattle. (Which I only did once and runied my biological-theological clock for a week)
    I do Compline from St. Mark’s, Seattle, via their podcast. That allows me to pray it on my schedule.

    I look forward to checking out Old St. Paul’s, Edinburgh.

  • ForthviewForthview Shipmate
    In the Lady Chapel of Old St Paul's there is a window which recalls the consecration of Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in America. He attended Old St Paul's when he was in Edinburgh but was ordained to the episcopate in ,I think, Aberdeen.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    Nick Tamen: PM'ed you
  • OblatusOblatus Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    Cathscats wrote: »
    We know the organist there quite well.....

    Way back, about 20 years or so, I belonged to an early-music choral ensemble that sang evening services for a week in St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh. But Old St Paul's was our home base for morning rehearsals and then most of us attended the midday Mass. They were most welcoming (as were the people at the cathedral).

  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    I checked out Old St Paul's online Mass today.

    Reverent, trad-language liturgy (SEC 1970, with minor alterations/Carflick bits?), and proper Hymns. Setting was mostly Martin Shaw's Anglican Folk Mass - even more singable IMHO than good ol' Merbecke...

    Also INCENSE.
    :grin:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=MK5So6iOcP0

    Quite the All Saints, Margaret Street, London...in Embra...
    :wink:

    Enjoy.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    All Saints, Margaret Street had a real, proper, vested Thurifer today!
    (Not just Father setting the thurible aside and picking it up by himself as needed which is how it's been up till now)
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    The text of the Mass is very similar to that in the APBA 2nd Order, but not identical. We get caught from time to time. Being 1970 rather than 1995 could explain the differences.
  • Galilit wrote: »
    All Saints, Margaret Street had a real, proper, vested Thurifer today!
    (Not just Father setting the thurible aside and picking it up by himself as needed which is how it's been up till now)

    Ah well - that's now allowed in England, but not yet in Scotland, I think.



  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    Galilit wrote: »
    All Saints, Margaret Street had a real, proper, vested Thurifer today!
    (Not just Father setting the thurible aside and picking it up by himself as needed which is how it's been up till now)

    Ah well - that's now allowed in England, but not yet in Scotland, I think.


    But singing is! Strange.
  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    I checked out Old St Paul's online Mass today.

    Reverent, trad-language liturgy (SEC 1970, with minor alterations/Carflick bits?), and proper Hymns. Setting was mostly Martin Shaw's Anglican Folk Mass - even more singable IMHO than good ol' Merbecke...

    Also INCENSE.
    :grin:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=MK5So6iOcP0

    Quite the All Saints, Margaret Street, London...in Embra...
    :wink:

    Enjoy.

    Hmm.... I wonder if Spikey Mike's would agree with you on that....
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    angloid wrote: »
    Galilit wrote: »
    All Saints, Margaret Street had a real, proper, vested Thurifer today!
    (Not just Father setting the thurible aside and picking it up by himself as needed which is how it's been up till now)

    Ah well - that's now allowed in England, but not yet in Scotland, I think.


    But singing is! Strange.

    I thought that - the church was not open for public worship, but the two cantors maintained social distancing, and (AFAICS) sang away from each other...

    They seemed to be quite a long way from the priest, too.

  • kingsfold wrote: »
    I checked out Old St Paul's online Mass today.

    Reverent, trad-language liturgy (SEC 1970, with minor alterations/Carflick bits?), and proper Hymns. Setting was mostly Martin Shaw's Anglican Folk Mass - even more singable IMHO than good ol' Merbecke...

    Also INCENSE.
    :grin:
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=MK5So6iOcP0

    Quite the All Saints, Margaret Street, London...in Embra...
    :wink:

    Enjoy.

    Hmm.... I wonder if Spikey Mike's would agree with you on that....

    O dear. My bad, perhaps...
    :open_mouth:
  • CyprianCyprian Shipmate
    Alan29 wrote: »
    Am I the only one who finds live streamed services only increase my sense of separation from my church community?
    For that reason I don't watch them.

    No, you're not. We're doing Morning Prayer on zoom, which is very much participatory. A dozen or more of the congregation take it in turns to lead a part of the service.

    Watching a livestream doesn't feel like that at all. To me, it's really hard to participate with a video.

    I can understand that.

    I've seen some really well done live-streamed services and some less perhaps less felicitous efforts. In the latter category has been one priest sitting at the desk in the church office, facing his laptop, and reading the words of the service as though he were reading a prepared statement, punctuated with commentary. The sense, unintended though I'm sure it was, was that it was very much focused on him and his reading, rather than an act of worship directed to God. There was no sense of worship space and godward direction; just an unvested clergyman talking into a camera, with bookshelves and filing cabinets in the background.

    The nave was just through the door, which would have allowed for the office to have been prayed with all of the relevant ceremony and what have you.

    Being a small, new mission with no building of our own, we have had to retreat into a makeshift chapel in my home, but I still try to do as much as I can with what little we have in those circumstances. Our people have the service booklets at home and I email the weekly propers so they can join in. One person sets up his laptop in his icon corner during service times and joins in all the psalms and responses from there. He even has a candle that he lights at the Phos Hilaron. With a little imagination it's possible to make it work.

    Here's our little effort from last Saturday evening, from the the Proto-cathedral of St Melangell-on-the-landing-at-the-top-of-the-stairs.
  • CyprianCyprian Shipmate
    Cyprian wrote: »
    Well, in light of the fact that a number of the members of my already tiny mission aren't going to gatherings or, if they are, are at least avoiding public transport, we have made our first tentative steps into the world of live-streaming.

    We've identified a couple of issues so far... < snip > ...we need a separate microphone discreetly placed near the front, perhaps just peeking up over the back of one of the icon stands.

    If you listen to the sound in the video linked, you'll hear that it suffers greatly for the phone being behind us. It may be a while still before we return to public worship but I would welcome any suggestion over good but reasonably-priced microphones that will talk wirelessly to an Android phone and might serve well for live-streaming. Thank you.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    If you, or any of your flock, use eBay, you might find something there.

    I know NOTHING WHATEVER about Android phones, or microphones appertaining thereto, but searching eBay for 'microphone for android' comes up with some inexpensive bits of kit.

    Caveat emptor, of course...

    Oh, BTW - your Proto-Cathedral, (which must surely be the world's smallest), and its worship, are both seemly and edifying. Well done!
  • CyprianCyprian Shipmate
    If you, or any of your flock, use eBay, you might find something there.

    I know NOTHING WHATEVER about Android phones, or microphones appertaining thereto, but searching eBay for 'microphone for android' comes up with some inexpensive bits of kit.

    Amazon seems to have products that might be workable. I hadn't considered Ebay but I'll take a look. Thank you. Either way, I have no experience of such things and would welcome experiences of anyone else who has used a microphone in a separate location for live-streaming or recording.
    Caveat emptor, of course...

    Of course! I'll accept responsibility if I end up with something duff. :blush:
    Oh, BTW - your Proto-Cathedral, (which must surely be the world's smallest), and its worship, are both seemly and edifying. Well done!

    :love: You're kind. I was unsure whether to call it a Proto-cathedral or a Basilica but decided on the former. ;)

    We've had it now since the end of March. The building where my secular job is based is just down the street from the church where we worship. So I nipped out on my lunch break the day after lockdown was announced and grabbed a few things. Soon afterwards I started working from home.

    Now work and church are both at home for me. With daily Compline, as well as Vespers & Lauds for Sundays and feasts, (not to mention the Holy Week & Pascha services) the pattern of life these days sometimes has a sort of quasi-monastic feel to it. My own prayer life has grown and stabilised. I think I'll very much miss the little chapel when we are able to return to public worship.

    I made this on Sunday.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    I think often of the Destruction of the First and Second Temples and how those events and exile forced/gave Judaism a new direction.
  • ZappaZappa Ecclesiantics Host
    Oh indeed - and now in my unimportant and tiny diocese I seem to be in the inner sanctum I'm enjoying discerning and attempting to implement some of the new directions that are emerging. Sad times, yet viscerally exciting.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Zechariah 4.10 and Micah 5.2 come to mind.
  • Not sure if we have the Plummet of Zerubbabel in sight, but yes - it's the Small Things that count, these days.

    But then - it's been like that at Our Place (where we used to put out Flags, and sound Trumpets, if the Sunday congregation reached an attendance of 30) for some time...
    :wink:
  • ZappaZappa Ecclesiantics Host
    I'm simply delighted to find other NRSVA users in the world :smiley:
  • LatchKeyKidLatchKeyKid Shipmate
    edited July 2020
    Zappa wrote: »
    I'm simply delighted to find other NRSVA users in the world :smiley:

    We normally use the NRSV. Does the final A refer to the spelling or something else?

    We have been streaming services and a twice daily office for a while https://www.facebook.com/pg/BrunswickValleyUnitingChurch/videos/?ref=page_internal

    The UCA has a list of online services https://assembly.uca.org.au/resources/ministry-during-covid-19

    and a more complete list for New South Wales -
    https://nswact.uca.org.au/covid-19-information-for-presbyteries-and-congregations/livestream-options-for-worship-during-covid-19/

    I have noted that online viewers peaked to 50 many weeks ago, and that now 25 is the most we see, according to the feedback eye of FB,
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