Success for housebound parishioners
In 2004, Ofcom, the regulator for the UK Communications Industries, began an experimental trial for Northern Ireland churches to relay service to housebound members of their congregations. Ofcom licensed a number of local churches to operate within the UK Citizen Band, thus enabling them to transmit services through a new system called Community Audio Distributions System (CADS), which constituted a simple, short-range and inexpensive wireless public address system, Ken Quinn writes in the Church of Ireland Gazette
Following the experimental trial piloted by 100 churches of all denominations through Northern Ireland and Yorkshire, Ofcom deregulated church radio broadcasts in December 2006. This made CADS exempt from licensing and removed all regulatory requirements on churches using the system. The only restrictions for CADS broadcasts were that they could not carry commercial messages of any kind; were for intermittent use (church services); were only available to broadcast to the public in a geographically local area; and had to be turned off when not in use.
Seapatrick parish, Banbridge, Diocese of Dromore, was one of the first to engage in the initial trials and has now been operating the system successfully for five years, with some 50 parishoners tuning in each week to Sunday services. The main function of the system is to serve people who, for one reason or another, cannot get to church, including the housebound and those recovering from illness. These parishioners can tune in every Sunday to morning and evening services and, indeed, to any special services held during the week.
This not only gives them the opportunity to share in live workship but also enables them to keep in touch with parish affairs on a weekly basis and feel more included in parish life.