One of the parish’s first experiences with hybrid services was the children’s ministry series it held online during the pandemic. Rotating hosts told stories with props and songs, and the recordings are still available online today.

But not everything can transition to a hybrid format so easily. Once a quarter, the church holds an informal service in the basement, complete with snacks and round table discussions. Trying to stream that service didn’t work as well as the team had hoped, as there were a lot of empty pauses while people thought. But by recording and editing it afterwards, they can try to make it a bit more interesting. That isn’t their only struggle, though: moving all the technology to the basement is complex, with long cords and internet cables all over the place, along with a lack of microphones. They hope that in the future they will find ways to make it more manageable.

Though the livestream team had experimented with streaming to YouTube early on, it found that the limited interactivity and feedback through You Tube’s chat feature was not enough. By contrast, Zoom’s chat feature was crucial in helping Mr. Coatsworth and Ms. Glandfield stay on top of troubleshooting, although texting could be used if the chat wasn’t an option.

Ms. Glandfield now provides a one-sentence summary at the end of each service – a reference to a hymn or sermon. It gets viewers talking to one another in the chat, like a quick bible study to end each service. It also provides an opportunity to have more complex questions from the community forwarded to others within the parish if deeper consideration is required. As it turns out, the benefits of Zoom ended up being so many, and the number of events to be held so high, that the parish invested in two paid accounts.

The process of moving to a hybrid format has been largely trial and error for Christ Church St. James, with plenty of online tutorials to learn the many necessary tasks. Mr. Coatsworth was a Sunday school teacher before the pandemic, so this was an entirely new skillset for him to learn. Now, though there are still a few hiccups, he runs most of the livestream smoothly. The team has also learned to use a hardwired connection instead of Wi-Fi after the internet went down one day in mid-stream. While the crew is managing for the time being, it’s hard not to dream of one day having a bigger team – one large enough to work music, lyrics and everything else all together. There’s room for improvement with the equipment, too: Zoom recordings aren’t the highest resolution, and while OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) could probably solve the issue, there’s the concern that running all the programs at once may be too much for the laptop.

Even with the lower resolution, the crew at Christ Church St. James still does its best to upload quality content over the course of the week. After a bit of experimentation that taught them that they would be unable to upload so much video content without crashing their website, they decided to shift to YouTube, this time for recordings instead of streaming. It’s hard to break up a whole sermon into a YouTube short, but when it fits together just right, it’s very satisfying. Before shifting to hybrid services, they hadn’t even known that the parish had a YouTube channel, but now the shorts attract followers, with some shorts gaining up to 2,000 views and bringing in eyes for longer-form content.

Difficult as it’s been, the team says moving to a hybrid format has been worth it. The offertory went up so significantly in 2020-2021 that the parish leadership had to confirm with the diocese that they had indeed recorded the right numbers. But nothing is more important than how hybrid ministry has benefited the community. From accessing help with bereavement and grief management, to simply being able to attend services during a snowstorm from the comfort of their own homes, hybrid services bring convenience, comfort and connection to the whole community.

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Although it wasn’t the initial goal, the team has found that hybrid services open the metaphorical church doors to many who would otherwise not be able to attend. Now the elderly, those with mobility issues or a lack of transit, or anyone with a barrier between them and the church are all able to attend a regular weekly service together. Even if a person were to go on vacation, they wouldn’t be severed from their worshipping community.

Many of the 20 to 30 online attendees are regulars, but there are also some new faces. People searching for a new church get a private opportunity to experience worship at the parish and learn more about the priest, the music and even the dress code, all without having to commit to coming in person. In a society where meeting people and going out is becoming more challenging, strangers of different ages and ethnicities showing interest in one’s life is often a novelty; offering that connection to all for free is invaluable. Even if people choose not to stay, it’s a good opportunity to connect with others, especially if they are otherwise going to be alone that day.

The parish also advertises its worship services to communities such as retirement homes, providing posters with tear-off tabs with the link to the livestream so that anyone interested can attend the hybrid service. Similarly, having a hybrid option available is very helpful when it comes to funerals. Anyone who can’t attend in person can still experience the closure afforded by a funeral, and families appreciate being able to see that everyone’s there in one way or another.

Attending from home doesn’t simply make someone a fly on the wall. All Saints decided to invest in the intimacy of Zoom over the impersonal nature of YouTube videos. It’s important to the team that its hybrid services have an element of interactivity, which is not available through recorded videos or platforms such as YouTube.

“One of the great things, I think, about Zoom is that there’s more connection between people who can text each other, or just text the group, and also our ability to say hi in the morning. That’s worked well for us,” says Tim Ralph, ODT, one of the church’s digital vergers who welcomes attendees and hosts the call.

The services are always live to preserve the authentic nature of in-person Sunday worship. Every parishioner, at home or in person, is a valued member of the community who should feel welcomed and involved. The chat feature of the video calls is crucial to form that connection. Before and after the service, attendees can chat amongst themselves and with the digital vergers, who can send helpful links (such as a digital guestbook survey at the end of each service or a donation page link). They have sometimes been invited to participate in the service through readings and other means. When speaking to the congregation, the priest will include those on the hybrid call, to honour their presence.

Little changes have made the hybrid service more aesthetic and welcoming. At first, no one had anticipated that viewers would want to see Communion, so the camera would pan to the windows and give the 150-year-old architecture a spotlight. To the team’s surprise, however, people did want to see their friends and others taking Communion, even if they couldn’t interact. To accommodate this desire, the server’s position was shifted during the offertory prayer to better show their face to the camera and let everyone be part of the experience.

The Rev. Jennifer Schick has even made a small tradition of giving a little wave goodbye to the camera as she leaves, and the people wave back, even though she can’t see them. “Though the wave is being shared between cameras, and Rev. Shick isn’t truly face-to-face with her online parishioners, a connection is made every week,” says Mr. Ralph.

Despite the team’s growing knowledge, the hybrid experience of All Saints is far from a polished TV program. Little accidents occur, such as a priest forgetting to turn their microphone back on, but they are all part of the authentic experience. This is far more a strength than a weakness. There’s a certain down-to-earth intimacy to hybrid services that a pre-recording without an element of interactivity simply can’t capture. During the COVID-19 crisis, the church even hosted a hybrid pancake supper through Zoom. Events like that would simply not be as interesting as a recorded video.

All Saints encourages other parishes to invest in the intimacy of Zoom over the impersonal nature of YouTube videos. With a small but dedicated group of parishioners and a friendly environment to talk and connect in, the parish is committed to connection, interactivity and community, and it will continue to provide its hybrid services going forward. No matter what circumstances or struggles its parishioners face, the parish and the community remain as accessible and inviting as they’ve always been.

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Not only do the livestreams allow parishioners to stay connected when they can’t make it to worship services in person due to mobility issues, work or other obstacles, but they’ve attracted followers from around the world. One woman in Costa Rica, who has never been to Peterborough, is a regular viewer and has e-transferred donations twice. Previously, it would have been almost impossible to support any church except those that were nearby, but now a parish can have dedicated worshippers from around the globe. Not only can each church have a broader reach, but online attendees have an expanse of options to find their favourite parish.

All Saints, Peterborough has the financial resources to go to the top of the game. Its hybrid motto is “don’t piecemeal it.” Go for the gold, or, barring that, get the help of someone who’s really good and put it together over time. Decide on an end goal and phase it in. The church recommends that other parishes reach out to companies, such as Maars Music, if necessary for assistance. As a result of doing that, All Saints has a rather complex and sophisticated setup, with three cameras for optimal angles and software that can handle both the livestream and PowerPoint.

The livestreams are run by the church’s tech “scholars.” Similar to the parish’s choral scholars – high school and university students in musical education and sometimes interested in learning another language – the tech scholars are paid an honorarium for their work. Each livestream is managed by two of the five rotating scholars, one running the livestream and the other handling the PowerPoint. Although presets and fade-ins are already programmed to make tasks such as switching to the right camera at the right time easier, the skills of the two scholars at the back of the church are what makes the livestream run smoothly.

Or as smoothly as it can, anyway. Despite the church’s professional setup and talented scholars, there will always be a bit of what the Rev. Samantha Caravan, incumbent, calls “holy chaos” – the interruptions of restless children or a parishioner’s coughing fit… the little exclamations of life that no gathering is without. Mistakes are part of everyone’s experience, in-person or hybrid. While having cameras on you can give you a sense of pressure to perform, she says, holy chaos forces everyone to just roll with it; as a result, hosting the livestreams isn’t stressful.

Rev. Caravan, who has been at All Saints for six years, has been changing the language used in the church to be more inclusive, such as no gendered language for God. This is appealing to a lot of newcomers to the church, who feel more comfortable and at home with language that better includes them. Beyond the worship services, the church hosts all-candidates meetings and political debates, as well as Truth and Reconciliation opportunities; people outside the parish can tune in for one of these events. They can also choose to leave their name and contact info if they wish or join an upcoming in-person event.

The church does everything it can to ensure that the hybrid attendees receive the same care and availability as the in-person ones – short of mailing out Communion wafers, as one hybrid attendee had hoped might be possible. Even something as simple as speaking to the camera can make those at home feel as though they are there. This is especially important during life events such as funerals or weddings, which the church will sometimes livestream so that family members who can’t attend in person aren’t left out. Services like this are an important addition to what the church provides, and it’s all made possible by the inclusion of this new hybrid technology.

For more information, visit www.toronto.anglican.ca/parish-resources/hybrid-ministry.

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