Diocese of Chichester

Churches must close and clergy cannot enter their own churches. That was the stark message issued by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York last month in a bid to help control the pandemic.

Since the announcement, church congregations have been looking at new ways to connect, to pray and worship. The result is a dramatic upturn in clergy and laity utilising digital media tools - and doing it really well.

From Facebook LIVE streams and premiering pre-recorded videos to video conferencing service and video chat calls, many churches have started to foster these tools, and it is encouraging to see how well their content is being received, with some church pages achieving record views per video!

The Bishop of Chichester also went digital and streamed his Passion Sunday service from his chapel in Chichester which to date has gained nearly 2000 views.You can view it here

The Revd Chris Brading, vicar at St Richard’s church in Hayward’s Heath, said he was reminded of a recent quote attributed to the current Archbishop of Milan, that ‘the difference between participating in Mass and watching it on TV, is like sitting next to a bonfire and contemplating a picture of it.’ He remarked: ‘It’s not the same, but how comforting a photograph can be when we cannot be with a loved one.’

Fr Chris said: “Streaming our Sunday Mass is helping to maintain a sense of unity of prayer among our extended church family. We have tried to maintain as much consistency as practical, between what we do in church and online. The feedback has been very positive, with people really appreciating how they have been able to continue to gather as a Christian family on Sunday morning. We have also been joined by new visitors to St Richard’s Church.”

Other churches across the diocese have had similar experiences.Revd Will Kemp, church minister from The Point church, Burgess Hill said he has enjoyed the interactive element of posting encouraging comments while the service is actually happening. He said: ‘We realise that connecting with people is as important as content.”

Darren Lewis is a Youth Minister at St Pancras church in Chichester. Although he describes himself as as ‘not the greatest with technology’ he has connected with all the social media platforms to bring all-age worship to his church as well as hosting an online Youth Group.

He said: “I simply have a tablet or phone to record, my laptop screen displaying a script, a TV as speaker and my very patient wife as a helper. Each morning, I wake up Facebook with a live, ‘Worship Workout’ streaming from our Church page. At 4pm, I go live with an all-age ‘Thought for the Day’, lasting about 5 minutes. We have been able to make use of Zoom to host an online Youth Group twice a week and Zoom with YouTube to broadcast a live Sunday Service.

“The current circumstances have given us at St Pancras the chance to grab the opportunities Social Media and other online platforms give us to stay connected with everyone from Sunday service attendees, those who attend midweek groups and even engage with those exploring Christianity in ways we would not have previously imagined.

“As always, God is so good. Social Media has enabled families to worship together, young people to gather, children to be engaged and the church to congregate during a time we would not have been able to otherwise. We are not producing state of the art productions, because that’s not what it’s about.”

The Revd David King, vicar of St Andrew’s church, Eastbourne commented how he was enjoying the challenge. He said: “From the reactions of others it is proving popular both within the church community and beyond.

“We have also found that we are connecting with people who don’t usually attend church, so this has proved to be a missional opportunity as well.’ This truly is digital evangelism in action.”

The Church of England and the Diocese of Chichester encourage digital evangelism to encourage churches to engage with digital media and reach out to their communities, not just in this time of Coronavirus but to continually develop and nurture their digital presence so they can continue being more engaged and bring more people to faith by harnessing these interactive tools.

There are resources on the diocesan website to help churches with digital communication and, as Darren Lewis remarked: “I would encourage others to give it a go, have fun doing it, and most importantly glorify God through it.”

During Holy Week and Easter Bishop Martin, the Diocese and the Cathedral will be joining forces to bring you a full menu of services for Holy Week and further details will be available on this website and all our social media channels.

You can find resources for videoing and streaming from our pages here