How the digital world can help us worship
at 6pm on Sunday the 29th of January we will be gathering in St Johns to use digital technology to worship together, and also explore ways in which access to the digital world can help us live out the Missio Dei, the mission of God.
In the beginning…
One of the first ways I experimented with using the internet as a place to develop ways of being digital church, about sixteen years ago, can be found here https://www.wordsmithcrafts.co.uk/cyberculdee/cyberpilgrim1.html
I was living in a farmhouse without a car and several hours walk outside town, but with broadband I could keep in touch with what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic. I just had to switch on my PC and I opened a door to a space where I could learn, pray, and be challenged and inspired. Here is one of the videos from that first pilgrimage into the online world.
The online world has developed considerably since then, and people who were born on the day I made that webpage are now sixteen and adults in Scots law. They have grown up in a world where having an online digital presence is more normal than reading newspapers and where they often communicate with their peers through digital media more frequently than in person.
Can anything good come from the internet?
As people realised that Covid was not something that would be over by Christmas they changed from hunkering down to shelter in a blizzard and started to adapt to prolonged lockdown. For many this opened their eyes to ways in which digital technology could provide ways to overcome the isolation of lockdown, and perhaps grudgingly at first they learned.
It will take a while to understand the impact of those years. This article describes a sequence of adapting to enable people who were isolated by lockdown, extending practices to involve them, and starts to ask questions about how the new normal might disrupt previous assumptions. This one explores similar issues at greater depth and lists some of the challenges to traditional church structures as a result of what was deemed possible and beneficial.
For those comfortable with digital resident behaviour when worshiping lockdown might have been a very positive experience. Prevented from the ability to attend a place they were geographically committed to, they found online spaces to gather and participate with others as Church.
Online spaces like this have existed for a long time, but congregations were swift to adopt video conferencing technology to provide a range of solutions. They used a mixture of interactive gatherings, live transmissions, and pre-recorded liturgies presented at a set time for people to participate in together from their own homes.
St Johns primarily used a combination of webpage and zoom coffee to adapt the 11 O’clock service. As Quartz we used a mixture of online and blended activities, and developed our use of technology to the form you are experiencing today.
A quick taster of what to expect…
Musical worship
We will be using Spotify to sing together. The karaoke setting provides lyrics and a playlist can be pre-selected or made collaborative from the app on peoples smart phones. This is a more social way to use the app than just using it to create a soundscape like the Candlemass one below.
Meditative prayer
Several members of the Quartz team use the “Pray as you Go” app. This is a chance to talk about that.
Intercession
Reading
The SEC gospel reading for the day can be found on the SEC digital calendar which can be viewed on a browser, or downloaded to the calendar app you use on your phone.
Or you could read it in many different translations at Bible Gateway Mark 1:21-28
and if you want to read, and be guided in contemplating the passage, here is something provided by the Jesuits in Ireland
https://www.sacredspace.ie/content/mark-121-28
What do you recommend?
Please bring your ideas, and any examples of ways in which access to the internet has helped you.
Digital Divide
We recognise, and understand, that if you have been working all week in front of a screen you might not want to spend your Sunday evening doing the same! The evening is a chance to meet in person, and converse.
A digital divide exists as well. In Scotland we have a high level of access to digital technology, but lockdown showed that there are rural families who rely on a satellite, and families where all the children needed to share the same device to access school. Please take a moment to look at these projects which work to improve access to appropriate technologies.
Digital Participation in Scotland
https://digitalparticipation.scot/
For further research and thought about this topic
Access to theology and worldwide academic research
To what extent can digital Church be Gods instrument for mission, or will those who engage with the divine online remain a marginalised community? This paper discusses online pilgrimage and some of the issues.
An introduction to another academic paper. I’ve not requested the paper yet, but it sounds interesting!