With every verse and refrain, Bryan Dougan’s voice becomes more urgent. "We are so weary of this coronavirus and so hungry for the physical community of Holy Family. Feed our desperate hungers with your divine mercy and grace. Bread of the world, hear our prayer." Despite the intention in his timbre, his prayers echo hollowly in the cavernous nave; its pews sit empty. A member of Church of the Holy Family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Dougan is one of the congregants who helps create Sunday's weekly video service, a necessity of the pandemic given the dangers of mass gatherings.
"We're basically producing a TV show," observes Reverend Clarke French, who says the process has been the steepest learning curve of his twenty years in the clergy. "I had to learn five new software platforms since the pandemic started."
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