Livestream Changes
Dear Friends,
If you’re at worship this week, you may notice some changes. Actually, if you’re online, you’ll definitely notice; if you’re in person, we hope you’ll notice.
Going forward we will be live-streaming just the 9:00 am service,* and we will only livestream the portion from the Opening Hymn through the end of the Prayers of the People.
There are a host reasons we’re making this change, but all of them are about answering this central question: How do we use our people, time and resources most effectively for the building up of the body of Christ?
By live-streaming a single service without the sacramental portions, we can preserve the most effective parts of the online service, while drastically reducing the weekly burden of preparation and minimizing the technical and practical complexities on Sunday morning, which are adversely affecting the in-person services.
Moreover, almost all newcomers encounter our online worship before in-person worship. We need to be sure that our online offering accounts for this demographic, in addition to our members who are not in-person.
We are certain from our streaming data that we're putting our online focus where the most viewers are. At the same time, we know there people for whom online worship is a lifeline and the chief way they are able to participate in our common life at St. Andrew’s. Please know that we are committed to continuing to offer online worship and if you would like to participate by receiving Holy Communion at home, we’d be happy to add you to our communion visitation schedule.
I am excited about these changes and the potential they hold for both our online and in-person worship experiences. And whether in the Great Hall or on the screen, I look forward to worshipping with you on Sunday.
In Christ,
Fr. Andrew
* The 9:00 am focus does mean that Dr. Joe’s fantastic playing and the music of our choir will not regularly be online. We plan to record the choir anthems and other special music from time to time. Look for these pieces on YouTube and Facebook in the weeks and months to come.
