Adapting to and Assessing Online Worship: Listening to Rural Church of England Lay People

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to analyse the comments made by 133 rural lay people who voiced their views on, and experience of, the move to online provision of worship services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Issues identified centred on the content and structure of such worship with virtual Holy Communion being the service most frequently mentioned as cause for concern. Overall, however, rural lay people were positive about their experience. In particular, the opportunities online worship provided for increasing communication among and across congregations, for growing church numbers and attracting previously hard-to-reach groups, and for the ways in which it was enriching worshipping life by increasing choice and access to a wider range of services. Going forward these rural lay people were optimistic that worship that continued to respect the importance of gathering in the church building could be combined with some level of online provision.