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Resources for Parishes During the Pandemic

The Episcopal Church Foundation has posted a helpful list of resources to assist in all aspects of parish life during the pandemic:  https://www.ecfvp.org/blogs/3763/covid-19-resources-2

 

Worship

Parish leaders can offer online worship from home using Zoom or another platform such as Facebook Live: https://indydio.org/offering-online-worship-a-simple-guide/

If you choose Zoom, members of your parish can dial in using a landline phone and still be included. Another benefit of Zoom is it allows you to assign readings, Prayers of the People and other pieces of the liturgy to members of your congregation who are joining from their own homes.

Church Publishing has made available an easy-to-navigate PDF version of the Book of Common Prayer: https://www.churchpublishing.org/siteassets/pdf/book-of-common-prayer/book-of-common-prayer-2006.pdf

Looking ahead to Holy Week:

Webinar from Lifelong Learning at VTS “Triduum Under Quarantine: Planning Holy Week Services Part 1”

Webinar from Lifelong Learning at VTS “Triduum Under Quarantine: Planning Holy Week Services Part 2”

Holy Week at-Home Worship Resources from Barefoot Theology:  https://www.barefoottheology.com/2020/03/19/at-home-worship/

 

Pastoral Care

  • In addition to making sure phone trees are in place, leaders can film pre-taped, short “video check ins” for their congregations that are sent out over email and posted on social media.
  • Parishes can host an open Zoom meeting “coffee hour” for anyone who would like to check in.
  • Parishes might create a “live parish prayer list” using a shared Google doc or some other shared (but private) means of allowing parishioners to add prayers and intercessions. Parishioners can then include these intersessions in their own prayers at home.

 

Adult Formation  

Leaders can move adult formation programs online, meeting via Zoom. This might be a good time to start reading a book together or watching a video series online as a parish if you aren’t already doing so.

 

Children and Family Ministries

For parish leaders:

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland has a YouTube Godly Play series:

or parish leaders may wish to film their own children’s formation videos or schedule a time to do so live on Zoom.

To provide parents and guardians

 

Choir

There are ways for choirs to create music together using Zoom:

Outreach

If there are ways for your congregation to safely help members of your community (sewing masks, delivering groceries, advocating for policies that will protect the vulnerable), let your people know via email and social media and phone calls. You can create community around these efforts. Maybe a Zoom “mask sewing” group meets for an hour while sewing, or an advocacy group has a weekly conference call to talk about its progress.

 

Giving/Pledges 

While congregations are not meeting in person, the bishop’s office will process online gifts on behalf of congregations, and will absorb all payment processing fees. Every dollar of a contribution will go to the congregation: https://onrealm.org/indydio/-/give/covid19

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