Livestreaming Mass – A parish experience
By Joe Ronan
In the middle of March this year we were hearing a lot about the COVID-19 virus and its effects abroad, but it all seemed a little academic. Then within the space of about a week, we went from taking more stringent hygiene precautions to being completely unable to attend Mass in our churches. This had a dramatic effect on the life of our parish.
A couple of parishioners who were in health risk categories had started asking about live streaming Mass. Around the 12th March, we raised the idea of a contingency plan for live streaming services with our Parish Priest, and he readily agreed that we should prepare for the possibility. We realised that it would also help many who lived at some distance from the churches. (Our PP is also in charge of a number of outlying rural parishes that cover an extensive area, with few public transport options).
The technology to set up such a broadcast is surprisingly available and common. Most of us carry in our pockets devices with very high-resolution video cameras that can send short clips to anyone in the world at the press of a button. One to one video chats are commonplace. At a slightly higher tech level, in the computer gaming community, many gamers stream their games live to their internet channels so their friends and fans can watch in real-time. If you are not up to date with computer games you may not realise quite how big a business it is – a report in April 2019 put the value of the gaming market in the UK at £5.7bn. It is apparently bigger than both films and music combined. It is this industry that has encouraged the development and ready availability of the tools and software that make setting up a live stream so straightforward these days.
Our first decision was to replace the aged and non-operational video camera in the church with a new internet-capable one (IP camera). Modern security cameras have high-quality video, are relatively cheap, and are easy to set up given with some basic knowledge. In common with most old buildings however, the parish wifi signal was not strong inside the church itself due to the thickness and placing of walls. Using the existing cable channels meant we could install cabled Ethernet links quickly and easily, which gave us additional robustness and security. Since there was very little effort involved in adding a second camera, we did so. This meant that we had much more flexibility in the choice of camera angles. We chose positions based not only on what we needed for live streaming but also for what would be appropriate for the security function that the cameras would also contribute to.
A bigger problem than video was sound quality. A church building can be a challenging acoustic at the best of times, but an empty echoing church is a real problem, that took a number of attempts to get right. We were helped here by the valuable assistance of our resident parish folk group who helped us set up a sound mixer they use, and by tapping directly into the output of the wireless microphone used by the priest, we were eventually able to bring the sound under control.
Both parts of the system come together in a PC running OBS Studio software which is one of the computer programs developed for gamers. This free (open source) software took about two hours to learn to a sufficient level to operate the system to a good level. We also had an existing church YouTube channel, which makes the setting up of the actual stream very straightforward. Again, this facility was originally developed for gamers.
We had a group of volunteers who were willing to invest some time to learn how to operate the system, and within a few days, each was confident enough to be able to run things single-handed.
By the 22nd March, Masses in churches had been stopped, but we were ready for our first live stream.
We were bowled over by the reaction from the community. The live stream software can report in real-time how many devices are watching a particular stream. We had nearly 400 connections, and many of those we know were couples or even several generations crowded around a single screen, so the number of individuals directly involved was much higher. Many of those also made specific donations to the cost of the system, which allowed us to add a number of items of equipment which made the system easier to operate and more robust.
(One of the curiosities we noted from the event statistics was that even on live streams there are people who arrive late for Mass, and those who leave shortly after communion despite having to travel no further than their living rooms!)
The feedback in the following days was very positive. We had prefaced the live stream with a recording our organist had made of an organ prelude by Bach – Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier, (Dearest Jesus, we are here). That title really struck a chord with many people who emailed in to say how much they appreciated it.
We had a family of people in the parish watching from Malaysia; parishioners who were in Spain, and many from other parishes around us. One parishioner who never failed to attend daily Mass, but had no internet at home, had wifi installed specifically that he might follow the live services.
One email we had was from someone living elsewhere in the country who joined in with our live cast since they were brought up in the parish, and they felt that joining in with their childhood parish helped them feel closer to their parents.
Given that response, the PP decided that we would Livestream Mass every day, and so we have since. We also added a Holy Hour on Sundays. Having a team of volunteers allowed us to set up a rota to cover the week. We are planning full coverage of the Easter Triduum, and hope to include music recordings made by parish musicians from the isolation of their homes. The music tradition in the parish is very strong and varied, and we hope to include all our usual genres in the programming whilst staying within the limits imposed by Government instructions and various licensing requirements. We will also be hosting a ‘Prayers around the Cross’ live stream event on the morning of Good Friday on behalf of our local Churches together grouping.
Just three weeks on from our initial thoughts, we have a fully operational live stream service and are able to make the church present to many people who are not able even to visit the church building they have grown up with. It was made possible by dozens of different people; those who supported the venture financially, those who specified and installed the system; a number of technically able people who advised us and helped troubleshoot problems; and those who encouraged and supported us by their feedback and messages of thanks.
It has also given us the incentive to involve a much younger group of parishioners. Many young adults may well already be familiar with the streaming services and software that we are using, and are probably more expert than many of us – a perfect opportunity to invite them to join in and help out. Although that might not be practical right now, with current isolation measures, it is something that we anticipate doing in various ways in the future, once our community life starts getting back in place.
Parish life in times of Coronavirus is very different. I suspect it will never be quite the same again. It has however pushed us into using some new tools to help spread the Gospel. Right now we can help people maintain their contact with not just the Mass, and the church, but with the parish community they value. In the future, we will find ways of using the technology to involve many more people in the different groups and meetings that we have and to bring the message of the church to a wider audience.
[Live streams from St Mary’s Parish, Hexham, Northumberland can be seen at www.stmaryshexham.org.uk]