Churches maintaining community online

Just months ago, it would have seemed unimaginable to most Australians that they would not be permitted to attend places of worship. But COVID-19 pandemic and the strict social distancing measures being undertaken to combat its spread has completely disrupted all facets of daily life.

Religious services and meetings may be suspended during this time of pandemic, but it has not stopped church congregations finding new ways to connect online

“I myself am encouraged by how many people have been connecting,” said Greg Blanche, preacher at the Orange Evangelical Church.

The Orange Evangelical Church suspended all its church services and meetings four weeks ago and have turned their focus to providing streamed worship sessions and sermons, while encouraging online interaction among their members.

“We've been uploading sermons and interviews, people doing bible readings and praying and encouraging people to watch those together,” said Greg.

“Last Sunday, we put up links and sent them out to all our people and played it on Zoom live, so that people could watch it all together and afterwards to chat on Zoom. They are the sorts of things we are doing to help continue to connect people and continue to be a church as much as we can in this strange time.”

Greg is also continuing to coordinate his small, weekly bible study sessions using Zoom.

“Our bible study, when we would get together in person, we would normally have five or six, well we had seven last time on Zoom. So, it is almost life as normal, we’re just not in the same space,” he said.

The sudden transition to online service has been a steep learning curve for Greg and the other church leaders, and they are working to make sure those with less access to the internet still feel part of the congregation.

“We are concerned for those who don't have access to internet as well, particularly our elderly people,” he said.

“So, we've been connecting people, so they actually catch up one-to-one on the phone and stuff like that. And we're making a lot more phone calls, lots more one-on-one Zoom meetings, that sort of caring for one another.”

Father Mal Dunnett at Holy Trinity Anglican Church has also been busy transitioning his congregation online.

“We are using Zoom and WhatsApp and getting people connected through all the bits and pieces and it seems to be working,” he said.

“The Parish council sends out different bits and pieces and we have Holy Trinity news so that’s everything and anything that is going on. We are trying to get people to respond to that, to be part of those bits and pieces and it seems to be working really well.”

Although they too have faced a few technical challenges getting some elderly members of their congregations connected to their virtual service, Mal said they have also seen their services reach people who may not previously felt comfortable attending a service.

“What we are finding is, we have family members who are calling saying, ‘I've got to get Mum or Dad hooked on and so they are logging on as well, so it actually helping in other ways,” he said

“I think some people are actually more comfortable seeing it on the screen on their computer or logging into their smart TV than they are actually sitting in church and I think it will actually change things down the line.”