A message from People’s Warden, Rick Edwards

Recently I was considering becoming one of the people that help with the video setup for Sunday morning services. I imagined the task would be easy, but I thought I should see what all it entailed. Sitting at home and watching the Facebook live stream, I thought something like, “piece of cake”. Boy did I get my tree shaken!

I was surprised at the enormity of the task our priest Sarah undertakes. I showed up at 8:15 a.m. just as Sarah was arriving. In the old days, this might be the time for meditation, robing, and the like as the priest prepares for the service. But not now. First came the gathering of all the necessary equipment, opening of bags and boxes containing various video cables, microphones, iPads, something called a switcher box, and electrical cords. Two large tripod stands that hold microphones and iPhone cameras had to be set up too. All had to be carried into the sanctuary and placed properly for the service to go smoothly. Sarah dutifully spent the next 35 minutes connecting cables from microphones and computers to their proper places on the switcher box. Mistakes here court disaster. Then there came testing input/output for volume levels from the microphones. This is for the musicians’ mics as well as the bluetooth mic that Sarah wears. Finally, there was fine-tuning everything to guarantee a smooth and prayerful service. None of this is visible to those of us who just tune in for the service.

After the service has been completed, think of everything she does in reverse order as she disassembles and secures all this equipment and gets it stored away before the zoom coffee hour. After considering all of this I will gladly become a member of what we might call a Technology Guild, to support our Priest Sarah and to hopefully lessen some of the busy stuff that occupies or crowds the spiritual space in her mind. More time for Sarah to be present for us and for us to be present for Sarah.

Amen