In preparation for its Christmas services, St Joseph’s Redemptorist Monastery in Dundalk has launched a new live streaming servic, David Lynch reports in the Dundalk Democrat.
Rector and Parish Administrator, Fr. Noel Kehoe C.Ss.R., described it as “an exciting new tool in our mission to preach plentiful redemption. Communication is at the heart of evangelisation and digital technologies offer the possibility to communicate our mission with a worldwide audience.”
Fr Kehoe added: “The new webcam will allow family and friends around the world to receive be part of our worshipping community. Many people from Dundalk have emigrated or moved to other parts of Ireland or the UK and still feel a connection with the Redemptorist Church. This allows them to bring the local faith community into their homes wherever they are, via a computer, smartphone or tablet. As a parish, this means that family abroad can connect for important family occasions such as weddings or funerals, times when distance can be a painful experience.”
“This is also an important development for people who find themselves housebound due to age or infirmity. We hope that it will be an important resource for individuals as well as nursing and hospitals. We want to be a faith community that includes everyone and too often, those who can no longer come to church can feel cut off from their local community. The mass, devotions, prayers, petitions, music, and singing that create that community can now be continued even at home.”
Other Redemptorist Churches in Ireland have had a streaming service for some time. Clonard Monastery, where Fr. Kehoe was previously Rector was one of the first in the country. The experience from both Clonard and Mount St. Alphonsus in Limerick testify to the importance of digital communication.
“Together, these churches include around 15,000 viewers each month. That is a very significant digital faith community,” Fr. Kehoe added.
“Some people are wary of the internet and one can feel very anonymous and isolated online, whereas this initiative brings people into contact with a real living faith community. In 2017, Pope Francis’ asked the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications to find “new ways and means to communicate the Gospel of mercy to all people … through the media that the new digital cultural context makes available to our contemporaries. This new streaming service is our response to bring the message of God’s plentiful redemption to the digital world.
“No digital technology can replace the experience of being physically present to a person or a group of people. We are social by nature and our faith calls us into the community. But we must embrace the digital world and harness its many advantages to include rather than exclude. So much good can come of this, and as the founder of the Salvation Army once said … “why should the divil have all the best tunes!”
The streaming service will be launched at the annual Carol Service which takes place on Sunday 22nd December at 7pm and all services going forward can be followed live.
The streaming service is provided by churchservices.tv and people can access the stream by logging into the Redemptorists’ website [www.redemptoristsdundalk.ie ]or [www.churchservices.tv/dundalk]
DraggedImage.e2b8461092bc4ddb883cb239e7fc55fc.png