G'day! I'm Rev. Rory.
Tell you what, starting a pastoral position in the pandemic where we're all trying to stay home is far from ideal! Not being able to share a space together regularly makes connecting with a new group of people difficult, but we all need support more than ever! So: time to get creative.
What I miss the most about the way church normally goes are the regular times we're together to share a meal, have a worship service, do a study, confirmation class, play games, or whatever. It's those times when folks can connect one-on-one and find the personal support we need. Since we've been meeting from our homes, that space has been missing; instead, we've jumped straight to a Zoom call with two dozen people. The chaos of post-service coffee hour where everyone's in the one conversation is a special kind of beautiful, but it's chaos nonetheless.
It'd be nice to be able to look around the room and connect with just a few people instead of the whole group at once, or to know that a pastor's going to be in a particular place at a particular time.
And y'know what? I think I've figured it out.
Gather solves both of those issues and I'm stoked to offer it to our congregation. It requires no software to download and works in Firefox or Chrome.
It's a bit like Zoom meets Pokémon: You walk your avatar around the room and when you come into proximity of other folks, the video connection turns on!
Spaces are also set up for us to have larger conversations, play games together, run large group events, as well as have private conversations.
The Common Room
The Chapel
Gather exists just like the physical space we're used to having: we can use it to host regular small group nights, worship services, confirmation class, trivia nights, game nights, you name it.
The link is always active, so if you want to meet up with some friends here, you can! Just like a physical space, we ask that you interact with care and respect as you use this resource we all share. As you use it, you'll see others in here using it too. Just like in real life, approach one another with respect and awareness of the situation. If in doubt, write a note in the chat!
I'm looking forward to seeing you soon,
Rev. Rory
Associate Pastor for Youth and Community Ministry