Issue 23 Chaos and TruthBlog | Online communication
Online communication
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 11.03.20
OLUMNIST EMILY OWEN Online communication Summer 2020
‘ Yes, we’re still going ahead, but no handshakes,’ was the answer to my query as to whether an event I was due to speak at was cancelled.
Coronavirus was beginning to change things, but not too much. I arrived at the venue and automatically held out my hand, hastily withdrawing it, to the amusement of myself and the organiser. Old habits die hard.
This was on 14 March. Four days later, the government announced the closure of schools. Five days after that, the UK was in complete lockdown.
There was no longer any space for old habits to die hard. No space for finding a near-miss with a handshake amusing. Old habits had to die now. As church buildings across the nation locked their doors, the long-held habit of churches being a physical place of welcome and refuge died but, crucially, the church did not.
As I write, it is exactly four weeks since the UK has been in lockdown. In that time, pastors and leaders have turned their sheds, or studies, or dining rooms, into make-shift studios, as they film sermons and worship to deliver online.
