July 11, 2021 – Reflections on Virtual Worship


With less than two days of advanced warning, we began virtual worship services on March 15, 2020. Virtual worship truly surprised us with the ways it provided intimacy, connection, and true community across Atlanta and our world.

We were blessed by former members living all around the country and the globe, joining us for worship. We were blessed by grandparents getting to worship with their geographically-distant grandchildren for the first time! We were blessed by local members, long absent from the sanctuary because of sickness or lack of mobility, suddenly worshipping with us again. We were blessed with a wonderful class of new members who might not have ever found us, had we not been online.

This Sunday in worship, Pat Painter and Frank Painter from Florida and Benjamin Curry from California share with us about reconnecting as diaspora members. Nikki NB Benitez shares her experiences of being connected via Zoom while working on the frontlines of the pandemic and caring for her family. Bill Woolf reflects on Sue Woolf attending worship the last year of her life, while she was in hospice care. Dianne Lockwood shares how she has been able to virtually connect with her community in worship, Digital Dinner, and Coffee, Books, and More from Sunrise Assisted Living.

In this year of tragedy, grief, and turmoil, God has continued to provide us ways to support and sustain one another. Thanks be to God for Zoom!