VIRTUAL WORSHIP: The Pew Study of Worship During the Pandemic
In early July, The Pew Research organization did a study of worship during the pandemic. For full lengthy report see here:
Pew Study of Worship During the Pandemic
Pew
Research Center conducted this survey to help understand how the coronavirus
outbreak has impacted the worship habits of Americans. They surveyed 10,211
U.S. adults from July 13 to 19, 2020. All respondents are part of Pew Research
Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel recruited through
national random sampling of residential addresses. Thus Pew had data from last
year on these same respondents.
Of people who had said in the 2019 survey that they attend religious services at least once a month, most (91%) indicated that their congregations were closed entirely during April. Most also reported their congregations open in July including 55% who said their congregations were open with certain coronavirus-related modifications in place and 6% who said their congregation were open and operating normally. Few regular worshippers said their congregations were operating normally, but most supported the precautions being taken.
Pew found a large shift toward virtual worship even though most churches had reopened.
Of those reporting attending religious services regularly in the 2019 survey, only some (33%) did so in person in July while most (72%) watched religious services online or on TV. Some did both.
Overall, about half of U.S. adults (49%) who typically attended religious services regularly in 2019 appear to have substituted virtual participation for in-person attendance: They watched services online or on television and did not attend in person. Generally they expressed satisfaction with virtual services, but also said they planned to return to in person attendance in the future.
Just one-in-ten (10%) of regular worship attenders say they are still attending services in person and have not recently watched services virtually,
One-in-five (19%) have neither attended in person nor watched religious services online in recent weeks.
Catholics have substituted virtual for in person services somewhat less (42%), and have combined virtual and in person worship about the same (21%). They are still worshiping in person without any virtual worship at about the same rate (11%) as others but are more likely not to attend at all (26%) than the rest of the population (19%).
However many
regular attenders reported they were combining virtual worship with personal
attendance
Roughly a quarter of regular worship attenders (23%) appear to be supplementing in-person attendance with virtual participation: They have both attended religious services and watched them online or on TV in the last month.
Many Americans are experiencing virtual services for the first time.
Of those who worshiped online, the majority (56%) had not done so before. More than two-thirds of Catholics (68%) had not done so before.
Most regular religious attenders said their congregation is now streaming or recording its services
This is somewhat less true for Catholics (68%) than the general population (79%)
Most people reported they were worshiping online with congregations other than their own either instead of or in addition to their own.
Of the total population forty percent reported they watched only their local congregation; Catholics (42%) were no different.
Of the total population twenty nine percent reported that they watched only some other congregation; that increased to thirty five percent for Catholics.
Finally among the total population thirty percent reported watching both their own congregation and some other congregation. This fell to twenty three percent among Catholics.
In summary the pandemic has expanded the worship horizons of Americans, including Catholics, to include virtual worship as well as in person worship and through virtual means to worship with other congregations as well as their own. In other words everyone has more options.
When asked by Pew, respondents generally said that they planned to return to the normal worship patterns as soon as possible. Of course everyone wants to get rid of face masks and social distancing, however it is likely that there will be a new normal for many aspects of our lives.
My own experience
Virtual worship was a part of my experience before the pandemic. Since I use a walking stick, when it snowed or rained or there was ice on the ground, I stayed home and watched the University of Notre Dame Mass live at 10am on the internet I felt very much at home since I am an ND alum and worshiped there during summer school for many years. It also helped that Mass is preceded on Sundays between 8am and 10am by two hours of With Heart and Voice choral music of the liturgical year with a strong Anglican flavor. I always looked forward to getting up and spending a leisurely three hours rather than showering and heading off to sing in the choir at the 9:30 Mass.
Surprisingly the pandemic has changed my virtual worship habits. I discovered the Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana which not only has Sunday (and daily) Mass but also Vespers each day. I prefer them to Notre Dame for Mass. I visited them several times when I lived and taught in Indiana.
I am very happy with my current virtual worship life of Sunday Mass and daily Vespers. I am not returning to in person worship until there is an effective vaccine, complete suppression of the virus, and resumption of full choir activity.
One of the things I like about Meinrad is that it is still a fully sung Mass (ND has gone to a Mass with only a cantor); the monks are like family with no masks nor much social distancing. The monks have closed their campus to the public for the rest of the calendar year. They still plan to operate their seminary with stringent conditions about contact both with the outside and with the monks.
Links for Virtual Worship
Saint Meinrad streams live video of Mass and Vespers daily from the Archabbey Church. Mass is celebrated at 8:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and at10:30 a.m. on Sundays and major feast days. Vespers is prayed each day at 6 p.m. All times are Eastern Time.
Recorded video is available at
You are invited to share my worship experience either by the live link or else sample their worship by the recorded video on their YouTube site.
With Heart and Voice contains a live link as well as archived past programs.
Jack,
ReplyDeleteAs a Catholic who would rarely miss in-person Sunday mass, these times of pandemic make me feel a bit un-tethered, but I am heartened by the vigor with which my current parish, St. Dominic in Shaker Heights, has embraced live streaming of each Sunday's 10:00 a.m. mass (http://www.stdominicchurch.net/livestream). Mass is followed by distribution of communion (and the church bulletin) from 11-12:00 in the parking lot to parishioners in their cars. Everyone is masked and parishioners love having the opportunity to chat briefly with the pastor and parish staff.
The decision for remote-only mass thus far was made easier by the fact that our pastor had a run-in with cancer last year and had to undergo several rounds of chemotherapy, so rushing the congregation back to church for in-person masses not only would have endangered many attending the mass, but would have posed a grave danger for the priest as well. The decision was also well-informed by frequent surveys of parishioners where the majority of respondents expressed a preference to worship remotely for safety reasons.
Besides the priest, the only in-person congregation for each live-streamed Sunday mass consists of about 9-10 musicians (full disclosure: for most of the masses I am one of them), a camera operator, and the most essential half-dozen members of the parish staff - all masked and scattered throughout the church, separated from each other by at least 20 feet.
Beginning tomorrow (Monday), the 8:30 a.m. daily mass will allow in-person worshipers in addition to those viewing remotely through the live-stream. After much thought, this should be low-risk because it will be easy to socially-distance a typically small number of attendees. Most pews are taped-off and the ones that are not will naturally separate attendees by at least the minimum distance required. There will be no singing and communion will not be distributed in church. Rather, it will be handed out at the main doors by communion distributors (not the pastor) as everyone files out after mass.
Our pastor is an outstanding celebrant and homilist, and yes, the music is wonderful as well, so on the occasions when we have viewed mass remotely from home, my wife and I have still felt challenged and spiritually fed. And as a bonus, the opportunity to drive to church for communion afterwards provides the chance to connect personally, if briefly, with the pastor and a few representatives of our faith community.
Jack, the explosion of online worshiping opportunities is providing you and many others a wonderful variety of ways to connect with church services that meet one's spiritual needs. Though I wonder what the fallout will be for in-person mass attendance after the COVID crisis has passed, I would guess that most of our dyed-in-the-wool Catholic brothers and sisters will return to the pews because community is at the heart of our faith. There may be some fall-off in attendance at parishes that were already struggling, pre-COVID, with a less-than-vibrant in-person worship experience, but I am fairly confident that most of our churches will be fine.