The District’s newest megachurch doesn’t have a smoke machine, praise band or rock concert-style musical numbers.
But livestreaming daily prayer services and Sunday worship has allowed the Washington National Cathedral to attract 30,000 weekly worshippers online, nearly 10 times its sanctuary’s seating capacity.
“We became more of a ‘national’ cathedral when we were forced to close our doors,” said the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, the dean, or chief resident cleric, at the cathedral.
Because of its roles as the seat, or ecclesiastical headquarters, of the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, and the Most Rev. Michael Curry, the denomination’s U.S. presiding bishop, there’s always been a larger role for the 110-year-old cathedral, Mr. Hollerith said.
“But we became much more of a national presence and even interdenominational in some ways during the pandemic, as a result of the pandemic,” he added.
About 30,000 people across the nation and around the world “attend” weekly worship and daily prayer services online, either in real-time or via recordings posted on YouTube. A cathedral spokesman said there are approximately 1,300 “resident” members of the congregation, and “about 150 to 200 far-flung members of the virtual flock.”
A spike in online participation was not limited to the cathedral, however. LifeWay Research reported in October that 45% of Americans surveyed said they had participated in streamed or recorded services due to pandemic closures. One-third of those viewers, or 15%, were people who did not regularly attend in-person worship.
“It’s not surprising to see churchgoers using online options to view a church service, but there are also those who have not been church attendees who have at least checked out a church service during the pandemic,” Scott McConnell, LifeWay Research’s executive director, said at the time.
Mr. Hollerith agreed.
“The pandemic, and the video systems that we installed right before the pandemic hit, turned out to be a great means of grace for the cathedral that enabled us to really minister to people at a time and in a place we hadn’t imagined,” he said.
“I had always wanted to build a sort of a digital cathedral, to have a presence outside,” he added. “Our building is incredible and we’d love it when people come to the cathedral, but to also be the cathedral ‘beyond the walls.’ I thought we would take five years to do it. But when the pandemic hit, we had to take about five weeks to do it.”
The Rev. Canon Dana Colley Corsello, who serves as the cathedral’s vicar, or parish pastor, said connecting with online worshipers — now part of her responsibilities — has brought some new insights.
“What I’ve learned from this is that people are hurting, people are suffering, people need love, they need to be pastored to, and we can do it digitally. It doesn’t have to be in person,” Ms. Corsello told The Washington Times.
Such a development is not without its challenges, she added.
“Where the tension lies for us as Episcopalians, it’s in the Communion, in the Eucharist, the bread and the blood of Christ. That is what I think most people really missed, was receiving Communion,” she said.
Ms. Corsello said Episcopalians also will need to “figure out our theology” so as to accommodate those wishing to affiliate with the National Cathedral as members but who live in areas where other bishops have jurisdiction.
“It’s gonna redefine the whole church landscape,” she said. “And it could be a new reformation.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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