With the easing of restrictions regarding Church attendance now in effect, we have a decision to make as a parish. Over the past 15 months Elliot Guerra and Bill McGarvey have produced well over 150 Facebook livestream events for OLMC. These livestreams have ranged from Sunday masses and daily masses to Holy Week, stations of the cross, weddings, funerals, confirmations, first communions, baptisms, graduations, organ recitals, discussion groups etc. Our parishioners new and old, near and far, not to mention their extended friends and family, have found a welcoming place to participate in our parish’s life through the Internet.
We are proud at how well–and how quickly–our community adapted to the pandemic lockdown. At the height of the pandemic we would have as many as 150 Facebook accounts participating in our Sunday masses (often with more than one person watching from an account). Our numbers for the Sunday 10am livestream lately have been more in the 30-40 range. It is still a decent number, which is why we want to start a conversation with parishioners about how to move forward.
If we decide to continue the livestream, our plan is to turn it into a ministry that is staffed by volunteers–much like our altar servers and lectors. Between high school students who need to complete service hours for school and other interested young men and women from the 8th-12th grade, we can create a schedule in which one person can do the livestream with very little training.
We invite you to answer our survey questions below to help us understand what the best course of action moving forward.
Thank you.