The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania has 134 churches in five counties. During the pandemic, 80 of our churches were live-streaming services with many more looking to learn. Even with church resuming back in the sanctuary for some, many of our churches expressed a desire to continue to live-stream services (reach new audiences, reach those that are disabled or sick, etc.) The need for short-term help in taping, streaming, editing, analyzing and marketing digital programming was apparent.
The Bishop, with the clergy Media and Technology Committee, has created a formal network of assistance funded by the diocese. A team of “digital disciples” was recruited. These are paid contractors who have expertise in at least one area below - and can train others in that area:
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Audio and video production, either taped or live-streamed
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Live event production and/or taped events for future broadcast
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Deep understanding of live video delivery systems
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Significant understanding of IP networks; experience with live video encoding hardware; deep understanding of video codecs
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Video editing and knowledge of video editing tools
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Analysis and insights based upon stream metrics
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Analysis of social media metrics (Facebook, YouTube)
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Build stream creative elements and pitch new ideas to church leadership, following brand, legal, and livestream creative guidelines.
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Provide onsite technical support for live streamed events.
This is an extremely flexible program - filling the needs of the churches while catering to the availability of the digital disciples. Requests are run through the diocese and the digital disciple that fits the request is contacted. Ideally, digital disciples have a connection to one of our churches (as a parishioner) and/or are enrolled in a university program. . Churches can register for assistance here. For more information contact jenbtucker@diopa.org.
