God is faithful: even as our churches meet virtually

We live in strange and uncertain times which are completely unprecedented, and it has been a learning curve for us all as we adjust to a new way of doing church.

One thing I am so thankful for is the opportunity to share morning and evening prayer by livestream on our church’s Facebook group. This has meant that we have gone from four to six people meeting in church to say morning prayer to over one hundred people watching on Facebook. God has certainly been at work—just this morning I had a phone call from a 92-year-old man living in the parish. He is a self-professed ‘lapsed Christian’, he is really struggling at the moment because his wife in unwell in hospital and he is unable to visit her. He has been feeling very depressed lately and the other day he decided, out of the blue, to tune-in to my Evening Prayer I was saying live on the church’s Facebook group. As he listened to my prayers he informed me that they uplifted his spirit. He felt the weight of depression lift off, and he wanted to thank me for my prayers and let me know of this incredible experience and encounter he had of God, and encouraged me to continue this good work.

Something as simple as sharing the daily office on Facebook live is having a profound effect on people’s lives, it’s enabled many people who are feeling isolated at this moment of social distancing to feel connected. I have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from parishioners from live-streaming morning and evening prayer.

I hope that inspires others to keep going with their live-streaming, we never know who it might be impacting.

–Revd Matt Smith (Trinity 2019), curate at St Peter’s Weston Favell

If you are a member of the Trinity community, past or present, share a story of God’s faithfulness from your life, so we can encourage each other: comms@trinitycollegebristol.ac.uk. Read the collected stories here.