Covid-19 and Dundonald Parish Church
Covid struck in the world in 2020! Dundonald, like every other church in the UK, had to close its doors. This did not deter our minister however and we simply moved in to the digital age and went online! The first services were created using and iPhone in the church and then in the manse when we could not enter the building. It was put together using input from others who read lessons 2026 and prayers at home and sent the files in to be assembled by the Session clerk, Bob Stewart and others. Photos of the surrounding area were sent in by viewers and were inserted in to the YouTube video to remind those who could not get out just what was around our beautiful wee village.
As the children could not, naturally, get to school, our church teamed up with the Dundonald Primary School staff and produced carrier bags, “Bags of Joy” that were distributed to every primary school age child in the village. Each bag contained some educational stuff, a toy, sweets and a book of some kind. These were distributed by volunteers to every school age child in the village, regardless of what school the attended.
The same idea was repeated for the older folks (no school material or toys this time) and then, as a thank you for staying at their posts, one was created and given to the medical and the staff of the village shops.
When Covid finally started to ease-up we were able to get people in to the sanctuary again but only with strict protocols in place and a separation of 2 metres, later reduced to 1 metre, between people. Our services still went out online and were being viewed by over 400 people all over the world.
Thankfully those days are behind us now and life is back to normal. We invested in new sound and vision equipment that allows us to live stream our services and also put them on YouTube but in a much more professional format. We still reach several hundred people in Brazil, America and all over the world every week.