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DiggTrinity Institute Prayers of the People from 1,600 Miles Away
By Nicole Seiferth
For Trinity Institute's opening Eucharist this year, the Prayers of the People were delivered by a Trinity Institute participant who happened to be more than 1600 miles away.
It happened because the Institute brought a revolutionary technology to its ancient rite of worship – Skype. Skype is free software that allows for Skype-to-Skype phone calls, video conferencing, and text messaging.
Trinity Institute and Trinity Wall Street are no strangers to technology; Institute partner sites throughout the U.S., Canada, and overseas experience the conference via webcast every year. The opening Eucharist for this year's conference was watched by more than 2100 people via trinitywallstreet.org.
The prayers were delivered by the Very Rev. Robert Osborne, Dean of St. John's Cathedral in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
"The interesting--and difficult--aspect of using Skype during the Eucharist was setting it up so that SKYPE ran from the computer in the control room to a plasma TV in the church," said Trinity multimedia producer Leah Reddy.
Despite the technological challenges of making that happen, Dean Osborne could hear and see what was happening in the church and the worshippers in the church could hear and see him on the monitors. Additionally, those watching on the web could see the Dean via Skype and the service in the church.
Trinity Institute will feature more Skype in the next two days, with questions for panel discussions coming in from Portland, OR, and Cincinnati, OH, via Skype, as well as a special message from Seattle about an upcoming Trinity Institute opportunity.
"The time we spent developing our Skype system of communication with our partner sites will be paid forward for future opportunities to engage in worship, fellowship, and education with other Anglican Communion communities near and far," said William Jarrett, Trinity TV's manager of production and operations.
Nicole Seiferth is assistant editor for website and parish publications.
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