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Virtual Worship Resources

The Diocese of East Tennessee is committed to providing our parishes, clergy, and community members the resources to continue their spiritual lives whilst making decisions to remain home. Below is a recording of a webinar on virtual worship that was recently held. You will also find our “Worship from Home” page linked at the bottom. There you will find information on services that will be streamed on television or the web, morning prayer resources, and other options for participating in the prayer life of the church.

As members of our community tackle the challenge of meeting virtually, we will continue to update this page with resources on virtual worship.

Virtual Worship Webinar

Recording Metrics

We are excited to introduce the Digital Service Register spreadsheet for use in our parishes and worshipping communities throughout the Diocese of East Tennessee. A few notes before diving into the Digital Service Register. This register is meant to record digital worship services that occur within your parish or in collaboration with multiple parishes. It is not meant for recording digital meetings or other events. This spreadsheet is intended to mirror but not replace the service register book, or red book.

At some point in time, when we re-enter our buildings, the digital service register can be printed out, and “tipped in” to the red book. The rest of the information will help you, your parishes, and your diocesan leadership look back on this unusual time and consider what we have learned. Finally, we have endeavored to assist you in navigating the many options of recording online engagement. We have carefully chosen to ask you to record these particular metrics to help us learn and understand these dynamics across the diocese. This is for your own record-keeping from the start of the quarantine until it is complete.  At some point, we may ask for those who found it helpful to share it with us, as we are all learning together.

Below is a video with Bro. Andrew with a walk through of finding your basic metrics and how to fill out the Digital Service Register. We highly suggest watching it before making your first entries. Note, in the video, Bro. Andrew demonstrates the basics of the creator studio metrics. If you hover by the name of a video, you can click on the “view more insights” button to view the same engagement window as you can on the homepage of your parish. Please record your video views after seven days.

Best Practices and other Resources

Guidelines & Questions For A Return to In-Person Worship

Bishop Brian Cole along with the COVID-19 Task Force have issued Guidelines and Questions For A Return to In-Person Worship. Read this document before making preparations for any return to in-person worship.

  • When streaming your worship service, we highly suggest that you obtain a streaming license from a major licensing company like OneLicense or CCLI.
  • OneLicense.net, a licensing company that coordinates with many Episcopal-type music publishers, is offering a free, one month license for printing and streaming. Please head here for details on that offer.
  • Leverage Zoom, Google Meet/Hangouts, Skype, and Facebook Live for your virtual worship.
  • When hosting worship, designate at least two leaders and do not speak at the same time (reading the same passage).
  • Make sure to use headphones with a microphone or a good microphone.
  • When hosting virtual worship on Sunday morning, we highly suggest morning prayer with the readings for Sunday’s principle service (not the Daily Office readings, but of course you can read those too).
  • See this great article from the Diocese of Chicago about taking your church online.