Public Worship

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I have gone to church on Sunday via live stream since John died almost three years ago. It has worked well, only very occasionally being derailed by technical problems. A church friend laughed and said she could imagine my sitting in front of the screen, wearing my pajamas and sipping coffee. I set the record straight. I have always dressed as if I were actually going to church in person, complete with shoes and earrings. Today the “always” was destroyed. I was glad to worship privately. A long round of texting, for something that needed immediate attention, delayed me. Yes, I went to church wearing my sleep shirt and a sweat shirt, with slippers on my feet. I was sipping cardamom tea, not coffee.

The sermon titled “I’ll Pray for You” was based on John 17:20-26. Jesus prays for everyone!! It was a dynamic sermon that I will not forget.

Since I was attending a formal service without being dressed appropriately, I’ll show you what informal looked like. Though my hair was messy, my heart was in the right place, and I was singing at all the designated times. Everyone can be thankful that a streamed service does not show the attendees.

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Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

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33 thoughts on “Public Worship”

    1. I love singing along with the church service in my own home. Many of our hymns have four verses, and that suits me just fine. I will sing each verse in a different part. I usually start with alto, followed by soprano, tenor, and bass. I tend to croak on the lowest bass notes, even though I’m singing them an octave higher than written. It is good that no one can hear me.

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  7. I too have a great appreciation for online services. I never know if Greg will be up to going to church until the morning of. Being able to switch gears to online at the last minute is a blessing. Even more so now, that we can “go” to our home church or attend my daughter’s in CT!

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    1. Wow! You do have choices! I have been so busy attending the church I belong to here that I never thought of going online to my former church in New York. I would enjoy that, too.

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  8. I had to watch online today also. You look perfect to me!
    I also get dressed before watching service. I take notes for my blog too.
    I was so happy to see Pastor John back today.
    But I missed the party for Dennis Hunt, someone id have liked to meet in person. He once talked to me about God d in Th phone for about an hour. Pretty remarkable for a stranger, he knows my brother though.
    Have a blessed Sunday, Anne!

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  12. I have never done an online church service, but did a Zoom art class last year and a Zoom informative meeting about the geese a few months ago. I was glad I could turn off my camera to watch as I wasn’t dressed up at all. I was always glad when working from home, we never had Zoom calls … for many years I just wore my polar fleece jammies when I came home from walking.

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      1. I tried to convince a friend/former co-worker of mine to use online church services and even told her about you doing this since John passed away. She is also a widow and won’t go to church anymore as she has hearing loss and says she can’t hear most of the service. The service is only available to stream using Facebook and she doesn’t want to “go to that awful website” … well, I said “you don’t have to stray anywhere on Facebook but to church; just go there and send yourself the link to the Facebook church site, click and enjoy, then leave.” Sigh.

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        1. You said all the right things, Linda. It’s too bad she doesn’t try. I have hearing loss, also. I hear Church better online than in person. She might check to see if the church makes a recorded service available. Our church records at the same time they are streaming the service, and the recorded one is available from the church website. I think my church in New York does the same thing.

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          1. I will suggest that to her Anne. The idea of using Facebook was so distasteful to her – I kept saying so is Twitter/X but I am on there for the weather/news and go to YouTube for the weather/news as I don’t have TV. Her father was a preacher, maybe that is why, but she never missed going to church, no matter the weather and she is in her 80s now.

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