Jim D.’s Speech Therapist from Wyncote Church Home called the church the other day to see what hybrid ministry groups beyond the Sunday worship service we have that Jim might join. She is working with him to be able to get online himself, and be able to mute and unmute with the tablet on his tray table, so that he can be more interactive, not just passively listen. (It makes me giggle – Jim, during the pandemic when he was still living at home… he was one we needed to watch because he’d keep unmuting unintentionally!)
The Speech Therapist also asked if it was correct that the church bought the tablet that Jim uses… because the charger is missing, and perhaps we want to buy another one!
Paula texted me the other day. She and Jackie had visited Sue S. at Symphony Square, and Paula wanted to know about the possibility that Sue might join Wednesday online Bible Study. (She was a ‘participative regular’ before her stroke.) I explained that often nursing home staff can be enlisted to help people get online.
My guess is that Sue may not be able to navigate by herself getting on the call, but once on zoom, may handle muting and unmuting.
Still, it will be interesting to see how she experiences it. She may be quiet, but enjoy it. She might be able to follow and participate. It’s also possible that it could be confusing and anxiety-producing. I think we need to experiment with the help of her daughter Janine and the staff at Symphony Space.
Of course, another possibility is that we schedule visits on occasion so that Sue isn’t just on zoom by herself, but an Old Firster is there with her on zoom, helping make the most of the experience.
Paula is going to talk with Sue’s daughter about all this, and maybe Janine can speak with the staff in the memory care unit.
Every Sunday, when I look up on the monitors and see Margaret R. in her bed, with arms coming in from off screen to help her with the laptop computer on her tray table, I think how thankful we should be for the quiet ministry that Marjorie, Mike W. and now Steve too have kept up – making their visits to Margaret be on Sunday mornings, first to Centennial and now to Stapley, so that they aren’t just visiting Margaret, they are “taking her to church.”
Sure, I miss Steve and Mike and Marjorie in person at 4th and Race, but I can’t say they aren’t in church! It’s almost a double portion of church – for themselves and someone else who can’t participate without them.
When we committed to hybrid worship, I envisioned that the church would have some tablets or laptops that members, like some space-age version of the dakonosis we first see in the Book of Acts. Old First visitors would borrow the church laptop borrow to take for deliberate Sunday morning visits that would allow us to include people in worship in hospitals, nursing homes, homebound. Marjorie, Mike and Steve’s ministry with Margaret is a concrete example of that.
Ministry, fellowship and meetings online have become a part of our church life. And we are so thankful for how they make it easier to participate. And we are proud and thankful for our tech team, Adam, Toni, Shelly and Kevin, that people really experience “participating in worship” or attending a fellowship gathering via zoom as “the real thing.”
We committed to hybrid – we didn’t want participating from home to be some second class “back of the bus” experience; everyone should be treated equally. I believe, we have made good on that commitment. And we should still be asking ourselves how we can move online ministry forward; what would make it more effective?
All that said, we are experienced enough to know and to speak about differences and limitations. For example, we haven’t figured out how to share food online! Ok, communion may work, but we can’t share a fellowship spread or a luncheon with folks at home? And, I have to say, I love that Greta has made a commitment to herself to be in the Sanctuary for worship once a month. She participates fully from home, and has greetings, prayers and her welcoming smile to share on the monitor. But when she’s in the Sanctuary, we get hugs. And the spirituality of her physical presence. It’s different… or at least more…
Before we actually were hybrid, answering someone’s question, I said I “imagined we’d have maybe one or two people online each week, you know, really homebound folks.” Years later, when I had been proven completely wrong and we were recognizing the “new normal” of having a higher portion of Sunday attendance online than we had foreseen, one of our leaders suggested that one Sunday a month, we not broadcast the service, as a way of gently herd people… reintroduce people to coming into the church space physically. (There are congregations that completely stopped any broadcasting of service to try and force their folks back into church!) We decided against it (because it would be seen as favoring one group over the other). But I am happy to see Greta in the Sanctuary. And the Elders are beginning discussions about coming back to holding their meetings in the same room, or at least hybrid meetings, because there can be ways in which physical proximity affords more presence and synergy.
I was telling Jackie recently, “I often remember when a decade or so ago, you told us something to the effect, ‘When I’m too old and frail to get all the way into Old First from home in Delaware, I hope someone will come out and get me.’” I remember thinking to myself, “I hope we can do that too.” It might have been one of the first times I really thought to myself, “Maybe I need to get my driver’s license again? And a car?”
God bless, everyone who drove Lois Nitsch back to Sekane after Thursday night choir practice all those years ago. Or Kathy S. when she drives Barbara home to Germantown after evening POWER meetings.
Jackie doesn’t always feel well enough to drive herself in these days. And if there’s not one of the grandchildren staying at her house to bring her in, she just gets online. With this new capability, we haven’t really thought about arranging rides, but maybe there are occasions when we should?
Likewise, I have thought about seeing if we could get Sue S. into church some Sunday. She can transfer into a wheel chair and walk with a walker. There’s some logistics involved, but she would not be the hardest of our nursing care folks to get to church. But would she enjoy it?
Or even Margaret R. – Beth has arranged for her to go out to lunch with friends a few times. There’s more logistics for transporting Margaret, but maybe Margaret would be able to come to church. On a special occasion. Or Margaret would make it a special occasion. Margaret Sunday!
When I was in seminary, part of my job was to bring between 9 and 12 patients (depending on how people were feeling!) from Coler, the long term, chronic care, city hospital on Roosevelt Island to church at St. Michael’s at 99th and Amsterdam on the Upper Westside of Manhattan. It was an ordeal.
I had to be up before dawn, to get the subway and make it over to the tram to Roosevelt Island, walk to the Hospital, make sure, early enough, the bus arrived, and the orderlies were ready to help me load the patients (all in wheel chairs).
And the bus had to leave the island off the only bridge into Queens and wander the side streets (a couple times the bus driver got lost and we missed church) to the Triborough Bridge before heading through Harlem towards St. Michaels. Then we needed to get the people off the bus and into the Sanctuary before worship. Afterwards Into the Fellowship Hall for a lunch we prepared specially. And there were always ‘medical events’ and “bathroom events” that really, I should have been a trained nurse to handle!
Start to finish, it was often an 11-hour workday for me. But you know what? Those “field trips from Roosevelt Island” were such a big deal for the patients and the parishioners too. Alongside of a Bible Study I conducted in a S.R.O. for folks with poorly treated mental illness (that was sometimes frightening and perhaps actually dangerous), it was one of the most formative experiences in my preparation for ministry.
Which is all to say, “I thank God for our zoom ministry every time someone pops up on a screen when otherwise they wouldn’t be in church. And I know that making the effort — even a herculean effort – to gather with others in our sacred space, especially for folks who can’t get out much, has rewards for everyone.”
Talk to me about your experiences of our zoom ministries…
Peace,
Michael
