Dear Friends,
We are living through challenging, unprecedented times, there's no doubt about it. We hope that you're all taking care of yourselves, and others, as you are able. For information about The United Church of Canada’s response and policies regarding COVID19, please visit the United Church's dedicated webpage for official updates. |
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Creative Thinking with Social Distancing
Online Worship Spaces
These launched overnight, with many communities of faith switching their Sunday morning gatherings to an online version. In fact, there are so many communities of faith doing this and thinking differently that we decided to create a map to keep track of it all!
- See where and what is happening here.
- Want to add yours to the map? Here is the form to get yourself added
- Don’t know how to livestream? See this resource and the technology offers below to get started
Virtual March Break Camp
The Go Project has taken the tough decision to cancel their day-camp and sleepover camp for March Break. However, they realized that parents were going to struggle over the next three weeks in figuring out new activities for their restless children. So, the Go team created a ‘virtual day-camp’ which is at 11am each day for the next three weeks, with lots of interactivity and homework each day to make sure that they have off-screen engagement. Check it out!
Plus: find other ideas on how to do online children’s ministry here.
St Matt’s Online Worship
Written by Rev. Lauren Hodgson, Minister at St Matthew’s United Church in Toronto
On Sunday March 15, the St. Matt’s Toronto community gathered for worship in a new way… online! As the COVID-19 situation was developing, we’d made the decision to continue to worship in-person with a number of extensive precautions in place. However, on Saturday, it became clear to me and many in our community that these precautions weren’t enough, and we shouldn’t be gathering in-person. So, we made a last-minute move to host an online worship service through Facebook Live, at the same time as our regular Sunday in-person gathering, and I was surprised by how smooth the transition was. Facebook Live was a great platform for gathering and quite accessible for many. I was especially surprised by the number of folks who participated.
Read the rest of the story here, and find lots more online worship services by using this map.
[Photo by Leon Seibert on Unsplash] |
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Technology Taking Main Stage
RingCentral United Church Offer
RingCentral, one of our Buying United service providers, is offering three months free to help United Church congregations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. At this difficult time, it's important for church leaders and members to connect easily and securely, from anywhere. With RingCentral Office you get an everything you need in one desktop or mobile app, including:
- Video meetings: HD quality audio and video conferencing, screen sharing and more.
- Messaging: Team messaging that’s perfect for collaboration with file sharing and more.
- Phone: Robust and reliable business phone system, including business SMS and call management.
All communities of faith who are new customers and impacted by COVID-19 get free access to RingCentral Office for three months. This includes 100 participants per video meeting. Existing Office Essential and Standard customers can also benefit from the increased meeting participant limit. Get started here.
One Licence
There are many services that are offering free/extended plans to help people who are working or worshiping remotely. One One License is offering streaming/podcast licenses for free until April 15.
Data Overages Waived
Service providers are also reducing or removing any data overages. Check with your service provider to see if this applies to you.
[Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash]
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Impact Measurement Workshop
Are you planning to change, grow, or add a ministry?
Embracing the Spirit has benefited greatly from the Theory of Change process and expects it of Growth Grant recipients. But this is open to any community of faith which wishes to better understand their story and impact.
The next offering of this important workshop will be taking place from March 23 to April 12, 2020. All work will be online and asynchronous. Experienced participants should plan for at least seven hours of work for each of the two modules. Your work will include reading, learning activities, and online discussion — all done at your own pace. Those that want to explore the topic further, should contact the facilitator upon completion of the workshop.
Please RSVP to the facilitator.
The EDGE Network Theory of Change workshop has helped past participants with planning, implementing, evaluating, storytelling, public relations, and the other covenants. Find out more by reading testimonials from those who have taken the workshop.
[Photo: Freddy Fam, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)] |
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Embracing the Spirit is a learning network and innovation fund. It offers funding and support for innovation ideas hatched out of faith communities and communities in ministry. Some of the stories and best practices that are happening throughout The United Church of Canada are shared in this newsletter.
If you have an idea that you want to launch, reach out and tell us about it! Proposal deadlines are quarterly, and due on the 15th of the month: January, April, July and October. Find out more. |
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