"With church communities required to re-register, all are vulnerable to new restrictions," explained Natallia Vasilevich, coordinator of the ecumenical Christian Vision organisation, referencing a recent law that requires all parishes to reapply for legal status and restricts educational and missionary activity by churches.

"Priests can be arrested and see their parishes deprived of legal status if they post or share anything deemed extremist. This is why they've been asked by their bishops to cease social media activity," the lay theologian said.

Read More

The guidelines, Pastoral Standards and Safe Practices in the Conduct of Ministry, sent to every bishop, secular and religious priest and deacon, set out how to guard against abuse and recognise it when it occurs.

"Our Lord declares that one of the gravest sins is to cause one of his ‘little ones' to stumble, to cause them to lose faith. The sexual abuse of a child or an adult at risk constitutes this gravest of sins," the document states.

Read More

Churchappsnz gives churches two options either to track or register its visitors.

The service has already been offered to its 600+ existing client base for free and is now being made available to all other Churches in New Zealand at no cost.

"The idea came in from one of the churches on the day it was announced that New Zealand would be going into level 2," said Joshua Woodham, co-founder of Snapp Mobile.

"A discussion was had amongst our team and right away we decided to drop everything and jump to it."

"A few days later we had a prototype and were able to advise our client base that we had a solution for them," Woodham said.

Churches can send out a registration form via the ChurchAppsNZ platform for its members to give an indication to the Church of who will be attending a particular church service.

Alternatively, church staff can check people into the church to create a register of visitors.

The check-in data is saved in a database available only to the church and can be sent to the ministry of health if required.

For visitors without a smart-phone, there is the option for staff to manually check-in/out visitors on a tablet, phone or PC.

Churches don't have to be an existing ChurchAppsNZ client to gain access to the service.

ChurchAppsNZ said they are glad to be able to give back to their community of churches and provide a valuable service at a time when the help is needed.

Watch demonstration

Source

• scoop.co.nz
• churchapps.co.nz
• Image: facebook.com

"It might take me another couple of weeks or couple months," Reverend Maea laughed. Continue reading

But most of them require access to the internet or satellite television, resources that some elderly, less affluent and rural people may not have access to.

A 2019 survey revealed that in 85% of decile 1-3 schools 25% said their students had no home access to the internet.

There does not appear to be many local catholic programmes available on the radio.

However, the Christian Broadcasting Association has 14 hours of air time on two nationwide networks.

Radio Rhema will also be carrying its Easter programmes.

Here are some of the many Catholic resources on the web and TV:

Shine Television

There will be a special Catholic Good Friday liturgy on Shine Television 8:35 am on Friday.

On Easter, Sunday there will be is a 30-minute Catholic broadcast on Shine TV at 1:35 pm.

Shine TV is a New Zealand Christian television channel operated by Rhema Media and broadcast on Freeview Channel 25 and Sky TV channel 201.

Streaming

Many Catholic churches big and small around New Zealand are streaming Mass online daily for parishioners.

Diocesan Websites

All of the diocesan websites have links to resources that people can use in their bubble.

Bishop Dunn has announced there will be a 3 pm national Catholic liturgy available in all the websites of the different dioceses of New Zealand.

On Thursday morning the Palmerston North Diocese will be posting their weekly update containing links for livestream and prayer resources for Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter celebrations.

Social media

Many parishes and groups are holding virtual meetings to support each other and to pray together.

Source

• rhema.co.nz
• cba.org.nz
• en.wikipedia.org
• mailchi.mp
• nzherald.co.nz
• nlo.org.nz
• nzcatholic.org.nz
• voanews.com
• Image: Screenshot shinetv.co.nz

"Our celebrations during the Easter period, which for us begins with a Mass on Holy Thursday evening, April 9, a special service on Good Friday afternoon and a Mass on Easter Sunday morning," said Lyndsay Freer spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese of Auckland.

"Because our churches are in lockdown, we are attempting to provide recorded daily Masses to our Catholic people via our diocesan website and the Bishop's Facebook."

Besides screening through these channels, Freer said they were in talks to have the services aired on TV.

"We are negotiating to have some television time during this period, and are very grateful that this is likely to be a possibility," Freer said.

She said the Church remained committed to keep connected to Catholics and provide for their spiritual needs "as best as we can in these troubled times".

Many thousands usually crammed St Peter's Square, and a few lucky ones will get to attend Easter Sunday mass conducted by the Pope.

However, there will be no such celebrations this year after the Vatican confirmed one resident who lived with the Pope tested positive for coronavirus, resulting in testing being done for 170 people in the complex.

Six of those tested came back positive but Pope Francis tested negative for COVID-19, according to a Vatican statement.

"Pope Francis celebrates a daily Mass which is live-streamed from the Vatican, and the Easter liturgies will also be coming to us from there via the Vatican website," Freer added.

The Church is posting online Mass links on its National Liturgy Office website.

The page has regular updates of links in New Zealand and overseas, including to the Pope's daily Mass, held at 7 pm New Zealand time.

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• catholic.org.nz
• Image: twitter.com

A large statue of the Sacred Heart along with a Little Infant of Prague statue, were seen being carried out of the Carmelite Monastery in Royal Oak in Auckland by a man and a woman who were caught on CCTV before 7.00 am last Friday.

Sister Johanna's familiarity with social media seems to have challenged the image many people have of what a contemplative nun is like.

RNZ described her as someone "who helps out at the monastery".

She had been hard on the case since the heist, running the CCTV footage through software to get clear shots of the couple before posting them to Facebook.

"Sadly, during this time, our chapel was empty, and we were about to begin our Morning Prayer. The Police have been notified. As you can see the car license plate is LKL441 - 1994 HONDA, please keep an eye out at flea markets or online. Thank you"

The statues were eventually found in a nearby cemetery the next day.

It may come as a surprise to many that according to the Daily Mail, "The monastery has owned the statue since 940AD" Johanna's post, however, makes a more modest claim: "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which has been with us since 1940."

Johanna does not hold anything against the couple, but she hopes they might find God in the process.

"No, I don't have any angry feelings towards them, just empathy. I feel sorry - I know you're a young couple, but you've got a whole life ahead of you," she wrote.

"I pray that perhaps that this is a grace for them that perhaps they might find the Lord in their lives, so there is a reason."

Source

• tvnz.co.nz
• dailymail.co.uk
• rnz.co.nz
• tvnz.co.nz
• facebook
• Image: screenshot tvnz.co.nz

He says it "has become a major distraction," an "obstacle to my spiritual life" and "an occasion of sin for me and others." Read more

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said the app was designed to help agnostics find out more about faith and the church. Continue reading

If the Church is to effectively evangelise in the modern world, a group of bishops argue, its leaders must be engaged online - but in the right way.

Bishop Daniel, says, "There's one thing I do every day, and that's that I will tweet out the Gospel of the day." Continue reading

Colombo from SIGNIS, was facilitating a session on "Communication and Bishops" at a recent workshop for the Bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Catholic Bishops' Conference.

"Communication technologies change people and society," he said.

"The Catholic Church does not operate in isolation but with communication technologies."

Colombo said media has the power to change individuals and organizations.

At the workshop

• An interactive session enabled the participants to develop new knowledge and skills to enhance their communication ability.
• Radio communication, interviewing skills and the ripple effect of a good radio broadcasts were emphasised.
• A three-minute radio interview on current issues gave the participants an opportunity to put the theoretical input into practice.
• Participants were challenged about the use of their social media.
  They were told not to be afraid to use social media for conversational evangelisation.
• With the help of information technology students from Don Bosco Technological Institute participants created a Facebook page on current social issues in Papua New Guinea.
• A forum with professionals from the media allowed the participants to see the need for liaising between the media and the Church.
• The forum also emphasised the need to make use of the opportunities available to address the fundamental issues confronting the youth and people.
• The bishops learned the various elements of putting together a powerful story… and then they were given the task of preparing a two-minute inspirational message in front of a camera using storytelling. The video of each of the interviews was presented to the entire group of bishops for comment and constructive criticism.
• Fr. Ambrose Pereira spoke about sharing and networking. "Our purpose of every production should be - to educate, to inform, to entertain and to inspire".

Source

• wantokniuspepa.com
• www.signis.net
• Image: signis.net

The archbishop presided at the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for more than nine years. He was behind the launch of the website news.va, the application on the Vatican called "Pope App" and the Pope's Twitter account. Read more

It is ironic that he decided to use social media to say this. Sadly, Piper's approach is echoed by most Christian commentary on the subject.

Almost every Christian book I have read about new technologies and social media are full of warnings about its dangers - lamenting the way it's fragmenting society and making us a "tribe of individuals", or giving us a fake sense of global connectivity.

I want to paint another picture; one that seeks to grasp the phenomenal opportunities social media gives for the gospel.

There are currently 2.078 billion active social media accounts in use, 1.68 billion of which are accessed through mobile phones.

It is often the first thing that people check in the morning and the last thing they look at before they go to sleep.

Let me present you with 10 ways that we can make better use of social media in our service for Christ:

1. A back channel for a movement

Malcolm Gladwell has argued that the civil rights movement would not have started on Twitter. He is right of course; social media's "weak tie" relationships would not have withstood the onslaught of systematic and brutal racism that those activists faced.

There is a slactivism that attempts to alleviate conscience by responding to the tragedy of global poverty or racist violence by simply favoriting a tweet or liking a Facebook post. That kind of engagement with justice was not what mobilsed thousands to face baton charges on the bridge in Selma, or face down a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square.

A social network in itself will not produce the next civil rights movement - but in the right hands it can act as a catalyst. Social media has played an important part in the Arab Spring, as well as the London riots and the mass clean up operation that followed.

For the Church to neglect this tool would be like the apostle Paul choosing not to travel along Roman roads, or not write on papyrus. Continue reading

• Krish Kandiah is President of London School of Theology, CEO of Home for Good and Contributing Editor for Christian Today.