BBC Report St Andrew's Bo'ness Streaming to iPads
It was encouraging to everyone involved with the streaming out of the worship service today to have the appoval of one of Apple's Senior Directors. In an email to me last week he wrote about our plan to stream out the weekly service to iphones ipads and ipods Mark Rogers writes "A nice project, yet again you are an early adopter of the technology, a great piece of innovation, hope all goes well."
The great thing is that it did go well. It looks like we had around 198 people looking in on the internet and it would appear around 130 were using ipads or iphones. This evening the viewing number also increase to around 34 normally on a Sunday evening we don't get many more than 18. This means that we more than doubled our physical congregation because of those who were looking in on the internet. I think we also owe a big thank you to tye BBC for taking up our story and publishing it o the web. Check out http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_east_and_fife/10302210.stm
At different times today we have received text messages and emails from those who were watching expressing their apprciation. One person even mentioned that they engaged with the act of communion this morning using a 'Big Mac' burger bun. I notice also that Iain down in Largs has left a message on my last post to say that he had engaged with the act of Communion over cyber-space.
I know we need to be careful that we don't in any way trivialise the act of Communion. Yet there seems to me something very theologically interesting going on when people can feel caught up in an act of devotion using the intimacy of the internet. I believe there is so much for us to explore and develop in this whole area of technology. For me the problem is that people often see this kind of innovation as a bit off the wall or a little bit whacky. When in fact it has all the potential of allowing us to develop community.
However the truth is we have never seen our live streaming of worship as a gimmick it is a genuine attempt to connect with people who are disconnected from the normal church attendance. Its just as much for the honest seeker as for the believers who find they can't attend church any longer for a variety of reasons. In the words of one couple "St Andrew's Bo'ness has given us our Sunday back again," they go on to explain, if you are housebound one day is as much the same as the next. However having a regular appointment to watch the Sunday services, gives them the structure for their week.
Posted By: Scottish Church Streams Services To iPads | eWEEK On: 14 Jun 2010 At: 12:56pm
[...] service live online, and 130 of them were using iPads or iPhones, according to a report on the iTalker blog, which also reported an approving email from one of Apple’s senior directors, Mark Rogers, which [...]