Church at Home: “Don’t get used to it”
When Governor Northam’s stay-at-home order went into effect on March 30, religious gatherings were one of the first to go. Now, with doors closed, churches of Charlottesville have to adapt to the new way of doing group meetings—online streaming.
“It’s been sort of weird,” said the Rev. Tony Monaghan, the pastor at Providence Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, “Because you can only see me from the waist up, I wear sneakers.”
After losing the building they rented for church services over worries about the coronavirus, Monaghan has been streaming morning and evening services over Facebook from his living room. Online streaming has brought differences as well as difficulties.
“Usually, I’m looking all around as I’m preaching, but if I’m looking all around, I’m not really focusing on people who might be watching,” Monaghan said in an interview. “So I have to think about looking into the camera.” He also mentioned the audio was more work to figure out: “We tried playing the piano, but it sounded like the world’s cheapest piano, on the far end of a tin can.” Now, his family prepares MIDI files for each song in the two worship services, as well as lyrics to put on-screen.
Amy Laufer, a student at PVCC, also experienced the troubles of moving online. In April, she and her family held their Passover Seder online on Zoom with relatives in Singapore and San Francisco.
“The audio was difficult to manage. But the real benefit is that the kids got to see each other and the children helped tell the story,” Laufer said in an email, referring to the story of how the Jews escaped from Egypt that is traditionally told during the Seder meal. The family set up two computers so that their relatives could see both sides of the table, and although there were audio difficulties, Laufer felt like the setup allowed everyone to participate. However, she looks forward to the day when her children go back to their normal schedules. Monaghan is also eager to return to preaching in-person.
“I’m trying to remind people that this is not the way it’s supposed to be,” said Monaghan. “Don’t get used to it. We should be worshipping together, as a body.” He feels that many parts of the worship service cannot not be practiced during quarantine while the congregation is separated, like the Lord’s Supper, and that streaming the services is nothing more than a temporary fix. “It does give one the great sense of missing doing it right,” Monaghan said.
Tony Monaghan is the author’s father. The church’s livestreamed services can be found on their Facebook page.
