The move in the former Newtown and Island Bay parishes, now Wellington South parish, helps the community keep connected when parishioners are unable or anxious about coming to Mass.

Essentially as a service of the Word, it builds on familiarity but is not pretending to be something that it's not, Eucharist at a distance or Eucharist where participants watch a select few gather around the table to eat and drink.

The Zoom Liturgy of the Word is also a live event and not recorded, so to participate people have to be there.

"In some ways, it's more transparent than Mass, everyone sees you and it's more difficult to sneak in unnoticed if you're late", a somewhat embarrassed parishioner told CathNews.

Another described the Zoom Liturgy of the Word as a "well-planned, and a liturgically and spiritually nourishing journey."

"We have been delighted by the creative initiatives that have arisen and the way the risen Lord has used these to bestow his graces." - NZ Catholic bishops.

The idea came from a parish meeting that heard parishioners, even when locked down, wanted to be together spiritually but without the social anxiety of being inside at church.

So having identified the need, organisers designed something familiar, but lay-led.

On average around 60 parishioners participated.

"The opportunity for a group of believers to pray together is marvellous; the long term impact of this is yet to be seen, says Joe Grayland, author, liturgist and Doctor of Theology specialising in Liturgy and Sacramental Theology.

He describes the Zoom Liturgy of the Word as a significant development in Catholic worship.

"There is a democratisation of worship through the work of many people and there is community between those gathering. Both of these are important because they reorient worship as we ordinarily experience it on Sundays", he says.

Embarking on the process brought forward a range of gifts and talents among the parishioners, which organisers say it is akin to the Early Church.

They say the feedback has been very positive and, in particular, people have mentioned the well-prepared reflections on the Sunday readings.

"We enjoyed working together and improving each week in a safe, non-judgemental environment" a participant told CathNews.

"The liturgy was prayerful, inclusive, welcoming and non-threatening", another said.

"God always provides for His people. The sacraments, which are the primary communicators of the life of God within the Church, are not the origin of grace, nor do they have a monopoly on it. God is the origin of all grace and God freely chooses to reward virtue, good intentions and actions." - NZ Catholic bishops.

Grayland endorses tools such as Zoom that can serve a community well by keeping it together in prolonged periods of lockdown, traffic light status, and vulnerability. However he says such tools are still in their infancy and have their limits.

"They work well in meeting formats but a little less so anywhere there are simultaneous multiple participants."

Grayland says online conversation tools like Zoom are particularly good at one-at-a-time interaction, but their current limitations are restrictive when for example they are used for communal singing and praying.

"The group cannot literally pray as one in each other's hearing or presence - because if everyone talks together on Zoom it's just noise.

"The only way 'communal' prayer works is when everyone except the leader is on mute," says Grayland.

"The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church. Before men (sic) can come to the liturgy they must be called to faith and to conversion: "How then are they to call upon Him in whom they have not yet believed? But how are they to believe Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear if no one preaches? And how are men to preach unless they be sent?" (Rom. 10:14-15)." - Sacronsanctum Concilium No 9.

The liturgy group plans to further enhance parish life now parishioners have had a taste of coming together "as one".

The plans also include providing Catechesis, liturgical formation and technical Zoom-host training.

The group is also keen to expand the group of parishioners who can participate in making the liturgies work next time there's a lockdown, red traffic light or when people feel vulnerable.

The organising group says that one of the 'in real life' things the initiative highlights is the need to update the parish Census and contact information.

The Zoom Liturgy of the Word initiative received the endorsement of Wellington South parish priest Fr Doug Shepherd.

Sources

• Supplied: Catholic Parish of Wellington South
• NZ Catholic bishops - Pastoral Letter
• NZ Catholic bishops - Pastoral Letter
• Dr Joe Grayland - Liturgical Lockdown - A New Zealand Perspective
• Sacrosanctum Concilium

A transgender Catholic, James Pignatella is one of the speakers in the three-part Zoom series which began last month. The next sessions are on 18 November and 15 December.

The series aims to educate Catholic priests on how to better serve their transgender parishioners.

The sessions are hosted by Stan Zerkowski, director of LGBT ministry for the Diocese of Lexington. He says these are geared toward priests to create a safe space for participants to ask questions and learn from speakers.

Over 30 priests are expected to attend.

"I'm really hoping that I'll … give them a face and a person to go with that identity," Pignatella says.

"I think that one of the bigger problems that exists is there's a lot of conversation about trans people, but not very many people know [anyone who is trans]."

He thinks Church leadership is slowly warming to LGBTQ rights.

Other speakers are Sr. Luisa Derouen, a member of the Dominican Sisters of Peace and Deacon Ray Dever of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Derouen hopes to help debunk beliefs about trans people Catholic leaders often spread. These include the idea that one's gender is fixed at birth or that transgender identity is an ideology or a mental illness.

She wants to help priests understand how important their words are to trans Catholics.

"One sentence that is negative and hurtful can move somebody a step closer to suicide.

"One positive sentence, one sentence that is affirming, can pull them back from the edge of suicide. It's that critical."

Over half of transgender youth and young adults have considered suicide, an LGBTQ suicide prevention organisation found.

Research suggests much of this is due to societal discrimination and family rejection.

Derouen, who has provided spiritual guidance to hundreds of trans peoples, says many want affirmation from a person of faith.

Some wondered if they would go to hell, if God could still love them and if they could live a faithful Catholic life as a trans person.

"The truth never leads us away from God — that's my mantra," Derouen says.

"So if you are living in the truth of who you are — and only you and God know that … That's what holiness looks like."

She says discerning their gender identity and transitioning can be a deeply spiritual experience. It's about asking the most fundamental question of all: "Who am I?"

"What I have witnessed over and over again, hundreds of times, is that when people claim their truth, as transgender, their relationship with God is much closer. We can only go to God as we are."

Most priests don't intend to harm trans people, Derouen says. She wants to be a resource for priests and Catholics who want to learn to support their trans community members.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image:Bloomberg
  

"The footages were sick and sickening - portraying adults engaging in sex acts with each other and performing sex acts on infants and children, in addition to physically abusing them," according to the complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.

Immediately after shutting down the virtual class, whose participants were mostly senior citizens, the administrator of Saint Paulus Lutheran Church reached out to Zoom Video Communications Inc. for help, "but Zoom did nothing," according to the complaint, which was filed as a proposed class action. Read more

That has actually been a good thing in an era of "distance learning."

It was obvious from the start of the coronavirus pandemic that the students could not be expected to attend a battery of Zoom classes or watch online lectures for hours.

Some families probably have more students than internet devices in their homes, so our school kept things simple.

• Materials have been provided, but deadlines have been few and lenient.
• Teachers have been available but not nagging.
• Parents have been trusted to make decisions about what their children most need.

The new routine is stressful for me, but my kids seem fine.

They miss their friends, but they are not despondent or wracked with anxiety.

I am especially grateful at this time to have five sons who can keep one another company as they fish, build models and play backyard baseball.

Things could be so much worse and for many, they are.

Having said that, I will be thrilled when the school reopens.

It's not that the boys' education is running aground.

We are keeping up, more or less, with the curricula. What we miss are the people.

There is an energy, optimism and sense of purpose to our school community that seems to keep life moving forward.

In the mid-afternoon, I glance at the clock and feel sad that it is not necessary to drive over and pick up the boys.

The school is our village, and we are incomplete without it.

Distance learning is kind of a drag for me, especially because it forces me to push important tasks to evenings and weekends, when I would like to be enjoying my kids.

Our time together goes to grammar and spelling instead of hikes and board games. That's a bad trade, but at least I can teach them to diagram sentences.

I cannot single-handedly create a Christian community where my sons receive personal attention from many different adults, each with their own strengths and insights.

I cannot supply dozens of playmates from a range of different backgrounds.

I can tell them that they are members of the body of Christ, but I can't help them to experience this in the way that they do in Catholic school. Continue reading

For six years I have been working at developing and enhancing a digital and in-person practice, mainly for people I accompanied who moved interstate or transferred overseas, or those with a disability and who found the travel awkward; the tyranny of distance made it impossible for us to meet.

While I was attracted to the concept of connecting with my long-distance companions, embracing this new approach was quite daunting; I am not a digital native.

Clients too need to be comfortable.

From a business practice perspective, like many others lockdown here in Australia would prove challenging.

Prior to the pandemic, I met with between 5-10% of people through digital technology, these were mainly people with disabilities who were housebound, or people living in rural Australia or overseas.

However, times changed very quickly in the last month or so.

Now about 85% of those whom I previously met face-to-face have switched to meet through digital technology.

I am very pleased for the sake of my clients and the practice that I sought help and can offer people a flexible approach to counselling, supervision and spiritual direction.

Videoconferencing

For some years Telemedicine practitioners, some teachers and business people regularly used videoconferencing professional life and it prompted me to re-imagine how I might do likewise.

As a country, we are technologically advanced with computers, devices and ADSL internet connections, but it is the recent introduction of the fibre internet which made it really possible to digitally accompany people.

Global is the new local

Several years ago, as I began to re-image how I might offer a dual practice; both digital and in-person I turned to a Kiwi colleague who opened my eyes to see that "the global is the new local" and that I no longer needed to be physically limited by time and place in which I meet with clients.

"Global services are as accessible as local services," the colleague said, and that living in Western Australia, I can easily meet with people in different countries but in the same or similar time zones.

Suddenly my small Perth practice was conveniently able to be in downtown Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok and Manila, and even despite the 4-hour difference, I also meet New Zealand clients.

As I became more familiar with accompanying people in a virtual environment, for me the digital meeting space was very much like meeting in person.

On-line confidentiality

While appreciating the convenience of accompanying people in a digital environment, I was concerned about how to protect their confidentiality.

Many popular and generally free videoconferencing options may be convenient, but questions linger about their security and privacy measures.

I was advised to be sure that signing up with a service did not give the service permission to mine my or my client's data and on-sell it.

My colleagues sobering words were, "If it is free, you are the product."

His advice prompted me to sign up to a paid secure, encrypted service. And for six years, applying secure procedures I have been using www.zoom.us

I selected Zoom after extensive inquiries and testing a range of similar services. I conducted these tests in rural Australia and international settings.

Zoom is not a panacea for all ills, however, with proper security settings applied, I found the video and audio quality to be excellent; as someone listening to people and looking for visual signals both the audio and video quality is very important to me.

Zoom is also easy for clients to use and while ease of use is one thing, I am very pleased to learn that Zoom recently put increased emphasis on their security and improved it somewhat.

As well as features such as a virtual waiting room, password protection and locking the meeting, Zoom's new version 5 now offers robust security enhancements; adding AES 256-bit GCM encryption. This encryption improves the user's audio and video privacy while the data is in transit.

Optionally, on a paid account, I can select the countries the data is sent through, making it possible to avoid certain countries.

In summary

As a practitioner, if you are yet to offer spiritual accompaniment digitally, I warmly invite you to consider using this outreach and use a quality solution that is safe, secure and simple to use.

As a client, if you know someone you would like to see for supervision or spiritual accompaniment and they are not local, my advice is two-fold.

• Firstly, consider using video conferencing technology.
• Secondly and most importantly, ask the practitioner what video conferencing platform they use and what security measures it has.

Living in Australia in Coronavirus times I appreciate I am far more protected than in some other countries.

Part of adjusting to the 'new normal' means working from home and being able to meet the vast majority of my clients and indeed attract a few new ones.

Having developed a digital approach supported by suitable procedures, I hope digital technology continues to help me serve my clients and support them in their lives. At the end of it, whenever that maybe, I will be interested to see how many digital clients switch from the convenience of their place to in-person appointments.

Source

• Stephen Truscott SM, PhD is the Director of the Fullness of Life Centre (Inc.) Perth, Western Australia www.fullnessoflife.org.
• Stephen assists individuals, groups and organisations through counselling, spiritual accompaniment, professional supervision, retreats, organisational reviews and vocational assessment.