I’ve often described last year’s transition to virtual worship as my worst nightmare and a dream come true happening all at once. The nightmare began on March 3, 2020. We were already working with parishioner Greg Harper on pre-pandemic plans to set up live streaming at St. Bart’s, when news reports prompted us to expedite and move our deadline up four weeks from Easter Day to the Third Sunday in Lent, March 15 — which ended up being not a minute too soon.
Even though Greg grew increasingly busy fielding calls from clients anxious to set up remote work, he found time to design, engineer, assemble and test our new system in his home before bringing it to the church on Friday, March 13. Our facilities team helped us load in, run cables, and mount cameras through Saturday afternoon. I remember dashing out to Home Depot at some point to pick up a few last-minute items and having a sinking feeling as I watched anxious shoppers grab cleaning supplies. When Greg left at around five o’clock, he gave me a quick tutorial, showing me how to use the camera controller, switcher, audio mixer, and recorders. I still had to download and set up the streaming software, test streams on our YouTube Channel and Facebook page, work out camera angles, set cues for the service, and practice to make sure I could do it all. The next morning, I would be all alone at the controls, streaming our 11 am worship service for the first time as the city was shutting down. No pressure . . .
On a typical Sunday morning at St. Bart’s, I was usually quite comfortable lingering in the background with my camera, trying to capture the beauty of our liturgies and the warmth of this community. That night I suddenly realized my creative role had shifted from documentarian to presenter. After several hours we had a successful test stream, and if you were on Facebook at around 11 pm you might have caught the live video of me standing in the pulpit, saying “testing 1, 2, 3” into the mic, and talking into my cell phone asking Greg (who was watching the stream from home) how everything looked.
Waking up on Sunday morning and walking into an empty church the size of St. Bart’s is a bit jarring. There is a weightiness in the absence of a congregation. All of this seemed to lift as we started our stream and saw the viewer count rise and the comments flowing in with your greetings, notes of gratitude, prayers, and passing the peace. Even though you are not with us, it feels like we can see every one of you.
The "dream come true" is that this church with the tagline "Everybody needs a place" now exists far beyond 325 Park Avenue. We can now "meet people where they are” both figuratively and literally through our online programs and community. You can find your place at St. Bart’s wherever you are and take us with you wherever you go. You can also invite anyone — wherever they may be — to join us for worship, The Forum, and classes simply by sharing a link or post.
As we move towards regathering in the coming year, we face the next set of challenges adapting online programs to hybrid models that welcome people back in person and continue to welcome them online. In many ways, I think this next year may prove even more challenging than the last. For now, all I can do is express my deepest gratitude to our community for staying with us all this time. Thank you for watching, praying, sharing, liking, loving, commenting, zooming, emailing, calling, giving, and making this dream of the church beyond Park Avenue come true.
Kara Flannery
Director of Communications
11 Comments
We are grateful beyond telling for all your efforts, Kara! Huge thanks, and blessings.
Kara,
You are indeed a treasure. We can’t thank you enough for your heroic efforts. St. Bart’s is blessed to have you.
Thanks to all involved for getting St. Bart’s up and running with its virtual web presence. The online offerings, especially the 11AM Eucharist, have been anchors of sanity in a crazy time. I feel connected to St. Bart’s in a new unexpected way, another path to Community. Every Sunday that we tune in, I am in awe of the technology that brings us together, illumines our gloriously photogenic building, shares the talents our exceptionally talented choir and broadcasts God’s message from the pulpit. It is an amazing and enriching experience. Again, thank you!
Well done, Kara! We are in your debt, while we appreciate Greg’s guidance at the same time.
Thank you, Kara, for sharing your experience with us. So very grateful for all you’ve been doing!
We only worshipped in person at St. Bart’s for about a year before we began to join you in worship in our living room. I’ve been in awe, not just of the technology you work with, but with how well it all works. I knew there had to be people behind the scenes. I’ve heard Dean thank you and Greg and the facilities staff numerous times. But your writing this makes you a real person to us. Thank you so much for connecting us to the church we have come to love.
Kara, you and your team have been amazing. I can't imagine where we'd be now if you hadn't been with us. I have faith that whatever challenges this next year will bring, you will meet them with grace, intelligence, and kindness. Our prayers are with you.
In Peace and Thanks, David
Your words are a meditation for everyone at any church who has coordinated or who has "attended" worship and other parish events via social media. Your team's work on these productions have been amazing. After viewing last month's Great Vigil of Easter, I remember feeling, "Yup, it's Easter." You had a huge hand in making that personal experience happen.
Kara - thank you so much for "lifting the veil" or at least a corner of it to help us see how much love and hard work goes into a livestream that seems to come sot us like magic. Your beautiful work have helped us stay close - and in some ways come closer as a parish. WE are deeply in your debt.
Kara, we appreciate so much all your work and that of the others involved in bringing us St. Bart's virtual worship services. They have been so meaningful to us in this time of Covid.
Well done. I have been "attending" St. Bart's from Albuquerque, NM since Easter 2020 and It feels like home. Thank you so much.