CHURCH VIA ZOOM

March 22, Sunday.

It worked pretty well this morning for the first time when people were still figuring out how Zoom works. Don and I made the mistake of sitting together, but each using our own iPad. That caused some terrible sound feed-back. Next time, we'll share one device. 

The pastors had worked hard this past week to set up Zoom, and notify the congregation with the sign-in code. They composed a normal service bulletin which each of us could print out at home and use to follow along. It may be possible to do this within Zoom, by changing screens and the like. Pastor B. preached and added text and images to his sermon. Maybe there's a way to sing together. 

I especially liked the Renaissance painting of Jesus healing the man born blind. The group of people looking on were not using social distancing, and Jesus was touching the man's face. Curiously, there seems to be two copies of the blind man, one at the far right looking away from Jesus, and the other in the process of being healed. While looking for this particular image online, I found several others from the same early period that had the same element. At one time, it must have been a standard way to illustrate this story. It seems to be an attempt by the artist to show the before and the after in the same painting. It was also apparent that blind people from long ago used the equivalent of a white cane. 

We've been blind to a lot of the harmful practices that are rampant in our modern society. Now that we're deprived of some of the things we thought were rights and privileges perhaps we can see how to behave in a more equitable and constructive way.