Church buildings may, of necessity, be closed at the moment, but the Church is well and truly doing what it usually does in worship, prayer, pastoral care, and even more so at this time of crisis.  All over the country clergy, bishops, lay ministers, lay church workers, and members of the Church of Ireland are learning to use technology and apps that they’ve never used before.

Bishop Paul Colton recorded an address last week and sent it to schools in the Diocese for their online/virtual assemblies this week before schools break up (so to speak) for Holy Week and Easter.

Bishop Paul Colton says:

I’d used Skype and Go-To Meeting before, but never ZOOM.  Now I seem to spend half the day ZOOMing.  This crisis is even inventing new words and verbs.  For the first time last week I opened and used the iMovie app so that I could send a message to the school assemblies in Ashton School, Bandon Grammar School, and Midleton College, all of which were gathering as usual this week for the last assembly before the Easter holidays – but they were gathering online.  Strange days indeed, but our ministry must continue.

Bishop Colton’s address to School Assemblies: