To Zoom or Not to Zoom

Submitted by a parishioner of St Peter's Anglican Church on Sunday September 5 2021.

The content of this post may not necessarily reflect the policies, theologies or opinions of St Peter's Anglican Church, Palmerston North.

To Zoom or Not to Zoom

It is March 2020, the first Level4 Lockdown has been announced and a major concern for parishioners of the Anglican Parish of St Julian of Norwich is what will be happening with the Celebration of the Eucharist - can it be "Zoomed" or not? They have just received an emailed letter and presentation through their People's Warden following an emergency vestry meeting where the co-vicars had handed down their verdict that the Eucharist cannot be legitimately celebrated online...*

March 2020

Dearly beloved in Christ

As you know Level 4 Lockdown means that we will be unable to worship together as a congregation in our church for the foreseeable future. Following an emergency Zoom Vestry meeting last night, our joint Vicars Fr Wiremu and Mater Ambrose have discerned, that celebrating the Eucharist online would not, for scriptural, traditional or theological reasons be appropriate.

As an Anglo-Catholic parish where our theology is primarily sacramental and our worship is corporate in nature, this decision will be upsetting to many of you.

The rapid escalation of alert levels now also means that we will not be able to hold a congregational meeting to discuss this. Instead, we hope that our attached presentation may help explain this decision and the arguments in support of this.

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*The scenario was originally given by St John's Theological College - students had to argue against online celebrations of Baptism or Holy Communion.