It Takes a Village to Produce an Online Service
HOW OUR SUNDAY SERVICES HAPPEN

by Pam Teplitz

When COVID-19 shut down our face-to-face church services and meetings in mid-March, a diverse team began building on skills learned in previous lives to create the high-quality productions streamed live on Facebook on Sunday mornings. The Rev. Jeremiah has observed that “we are learning to be videographers, editors, lighting and sound designers, producers, tech gurus, and intellectual property law experts all at once!”

(The intellectual property law reference concerned a traumatic event on Easter Sunday when our Facebook livestream was shut down by a copyright claim. The music clip targeted in the complaint was written and performed by our music director, Saunder Choi, using copyright-free background images, and did not violate any copyrights. The complaint had been lodged by an international music rights company using automatic scanning software looking for potential content infringement and has been fully withdrawn.)

Each Sunday’s production begins weeks in advance with the Worship Associates and Rev. Jeremiah meeting to develop a concept and plan for the service (see the Join Our Worship Team article for an overview of their process). The needs for specific service elements emerge from these meetings. Current events change the process week-to-week, but typically, Saunder meets with the choir section leaders and pianist Ryan Humphrey on Sundays after the service to discuss the music to be recorded and produced for the following and future weeks.

Saunder also meets with Rev. Jeremiah every Tuesday (they met on Thursdays before the church’s closure; the video production schedule requires more production time for everyone at the end of the week). According to Rev. Jeremiah, he and Saunder collaborate on the upcoming and future services, exploring options for the music to enhance “the overall concept, message, and flow/progression of the service.”

While this video does not fully reflect Saunder’s process because he uses much more advanced audio and video editing software, it helps to explain some of the steps he takes to produce the music sections. After the meeting with music staff, he decides on specific deadlines for when each deliverable is supposed to be done, including guide tracks, click tracks, and vocal stems from each of the singers.

Using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to compile all the material once it’s been uploaded to Dropbox by the musicians, he begins mixing the tracks. “Once a rough mix is achieved, I send it back to the singers so they have something to sing to while they record their individual videos. The videos and audio then get compiled into the final product that you see every Sunday!”

UUSM is extremely lucky that Saunder received a BA in Communications before moving from Manila to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, where he also had a side gig as a video production assistant. Read more about our extremely talented music director at www.SaunderChoi.com.

By Thursday evening, all other recordings from the Worship Associate for the week, Director of Religious Exploration Cleo Anderson, and Rev. Jeremiah or whomever is preaching that Sunday, and new lyric and title slides prepared by Pam Teplitz, have been uploaded to Dropbox and Google Drive accounts so that Saunder can work his magic on Friday. Saunder’s production process takes nearly 20 hours each week.

Downloading and uploading the digital video to the Facebook streaming service we use and to youtube.com, and preparing it to go live on Sunday morning is accomplished by our webmaster, Elizabeth Fuller. On Saturday, she takes Saunder’s completed video from Dropbox, and uploads and schedules it for Facebook and YouTube. This “can take anywhere from an hour to three hours or more before a video is ready to view there, depending on the speed of our internet connection and the speed of the various sites involved, on any given day,” she explains. “So it’s worth doing at least 12 hours in advance of the service time, if not more, just to make sure there’s enough time to fix things if there’s any sort of glitch or problem, like when it turned out one of Saunder’s files was corrupted and he had to re-upload it to Dropbox before I could do anything with it. Best to discover such things as far in advance as possible.”

Liz also posts the Facebook Livestream on our website and Pam adds it to the news.uusm.org newsletter site. Afterwards, the YouTube version is archived on both sites. Liz also isolates the music sections and posts them as individual music videos on our YouTube channel.

Throughout the livestream, Liz, the Worship Associates, Rev. Jeremiah, Eileen McCormack, Lois Hutchinson, Pam, and many others help others on Facebook find the livestream, answer technical questions, moderate comments, and direct people to the YouTube version if they’re having trouble with the Facebook stream. For about a half hour afterwards, the same group helps people find the coffee hour on the private UUSantaMonica Group page and answer questions and posts.

For Liz, “the whole process brings back a LOT of memories of when I worked in a TV control room, right after college. It’s very much about being in the moment and being very aware of a lot of things happening at once.  And even on the best of days, something always goes wrong. But if you give yourself enough time to deal with unexpected technical issues, you can usually solve them before they become obvious to viewers.”

Rev. Jeremiah concludes, “I develop the spiritual concept of each worship service and then our various leaders and professional staff bring their gifts to help bring the concept to life. It is a very organic process and I appreciate the dynamism that is the result of the convergence of so much talent and creativity. I do not try to dictate the process but rather I try to hold the space for everyone’s creativity to unfold. This brings a certain freshness to the services and I am always delighted to experience what’s been created come Sunday morning.”

Following are personal reflections on the process by our worship leaders.

Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae:

Worship takes more time than it did before we went online. Typically, I would have to invest significant time reading, researching, contemplating, and writing, and then I would present the result from that spiritual process on Sunday mornings. Now we have had to include additional time in the week to setup the staging for the video production (i.e., rearranging furniture, adjusting the lighting, doing sound checks, ensuring no background noises, putting my kitten in the other room, etc.) and then have to record multiple times to get as few mistakes as possible in the final videos. I realized they’re not going to be perfect and accepted that at the onset and I think people appreciate it. It makes it more real even if creating worship now includes incorporating multiple processes and technologies from Hollywood. So much has been added to my weekly routine in terms of now having to “produce” worship outside of Sunday morning. Once each team produces their videos, they then go through the final editing process and are uploaded for the service.

Thankfully, I spent some time in the theater growing up and in college, so those experiences helped me think through some of the technical aspects of creating worship online like lighting and sound and the setting. We also have some collegial groups that have been sharing best practices, but most are learning on the fly and we’ve been experimenting as we go. Most of these new technologies and formats aren’t things you study in theological school or practice in the field. Ministers, however, are usually highly educated and experienced when it comes to having to adapt to new realities and integrating new information. So there’s been a lot of new research, study, and experimentation that have been brought into the production process.

Preaching to a camera is very different from offering a sermon in the context of a worship service. I always imagine the sermon arising within the atmosphere of worship. There is something sacred about community gathering together, the singing of hymns, hearing the beautiful voices of the members of our choir, listening to the inspiring words of our Worship Associates, reciting the words of our covenant, and so many other elements of our liturgy before beginning to preach. I miss all of that happening in our sanctuary, but we are recreating some of that experience with our Sunday morning services. Knowing that what we are doing is protecting the vulnerable and demonstrating love in a very real way makes it all worthwhile.

I do think about everyone who is gathering for worship and also that our worship is much more public than it was before, so it is reaching more people and diverse audiences in the world. I always pray that I be given the wisdom and the love and the words that will be most helpful to the people I serve in ministry.

I have tried to create specifically pastoral services since the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve had to balance acknowledging the grim realities of the pandemic and the stress people have been under and the anxieties they’ve been experiencing while also putting some boundaries around those realities and not allowing them to become all-consuming. Worship is also a process of religious education and exploration, so I didn’t want to lose those dimensions either as this crisis was unfolding. It did mean I shortened my messages and tried not to go too deep or get too complex with the theologies and philosophies of the messages because so many were already at or beyond their bandwidths given everything else they we dealing with in life. I felt it was important that worship provide comfort and inspiration in these very challenging times. Now that we’ve reach a new normal and we’ve learned how to be effective with our production processes, I am beginning to bring a new spiritual depth to the worship services.

Rev. Kikanza Nuri-RobinRev. Kikanza Nuri-Robins, Worship Associate Chairperson:

I call UUSM my home and I serve in a number of churches in Greater Los Angeles. In that capacity I have been able to see a number of approaches to online worship. While I am very comfortable in the pulpit and love worship planning, going online provided me with several unwanted learning experiences.

I have had to learn to make a movie, save the movie and send it. I have had to learn to communicate across several platforms — Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting, and Facebook. The greatest challenge for me has been translating my charm and humor into something that works on these platforms. As a speaker I rely on the energy in the room — with these virtual pulpits the only energy in the room is mine. So I have had to use more of my rational brain and to rely more on Grace.

The greatest advantage for me is a large monitor that is on my desk. I am able to sit comfortably, scroll imperceptibly through my text, and create what l hope looks like eye contact. I have had to make my hand gestures smaller, and rather than pretending I am talking to a room full of people, I talk to the one person who is on the other side of the camera — you.

I think it is working. Each week I am a little more comfortable and tremendously grateful for all of the people who work backstage to make the online worship services possible. Our service is less interactive than perhaps a Zoom service, but our production values are the highest I have seen.

Moreover, one of the great advantages of these virtual services is that they are recorded and can be played over and over. People who are not in the area can participate in the service. So my friends from Palos Verdes and Long Beach can join us in worship. And our friends in Oregon and New York can join us.  And the friends of our friends, people who might have considered joining us but haven’t until now, are right there on Sunday morning.

The other great advantage of our online worship is that we, who produce the services, are developing skills, and acquiring equipment, that also will enhance the production values of our services when we are once again, altogether, in the same room.

Pastoral Care in Our Congregation

Join our Worship Team
WORSHIP GIVES WORTH TO OUR SPIRIT

 

Sunday worship is the heart of how we come together as a faith community. Worship at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica is led by a diverse team of clergy, professionals, and volunteers. If you have imagined yourself in the pulpit as a Worship Associate, now is the time to apply.

 

The purpose of worship is to connect with a sense of transcendence and transformation. The root of the word “worship” is to give worth, and worship gives worth to our spirit, and offers an opportunity reflect on our purpose and the meaning of our lives. By coming together, we build community, center ourselves, and nourish our spirits.

 

Worship Associates work as a group and individually to help plan and present Sunday worship each week. Each Worship Associate signs on for a one- to three-year term during which we learn the elements of worship and add our voice to our congregational service each Sunday. The committee meets each month with Rev. Jeremiah and plans services well in advance using monthly liturgical themes. We emphasize the Seven Principles based on the Six Sources, incorporating a variety of traditions, cultures, and voices into our Unitarian Universalist worship experience.

 

New Worship Associates are mentored, trained, and supported, so no previous experience is necessary but there are qualifications and skills that are strongly desired. Worship Associates should be able to write engaging, time- and word-limited copy for presentation, and speak engagingly to a live audience and in front of a camera. It is important that you are able meet deadlines, and that you are available to be in the pulpit at least once each quarter (four times per year).

 

Worship Associates must speak as allies and advocates, or members, of historically oppressed and underrepresented communities. You should have a heart for social justice and be able to experience empathy with people of differing views. Unitarian Universalism as a faith is committed to challenging traditional assumptions about who has power and who has a voice. The Worship Associates ministry is part of how our congregation can center voices that are often overlooked and unheard in legacy institutions.

 

All Worship Associates understand that this is a ministry of service. This is not the place to push a personal agenda or a particular point of view. Worship Associates must be comfortable speaking to and for the diversity of our congregation – theists and humanists, liberals and moderates, and using sacred texts from the many faith traditions and spiritualities of the world.

 

We will be adding three to five new Worship Associates this summer and fall as others cycle off the team. Those who are interested should contact Worship Associate Chairperson the Rev. Dr. Kikanza Nuri-Robins for an application and to discuss any questions you may have.  You may also contact the Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae at minister@uusm.org.

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small Chalice Lighter Contributions Make a Big Difference!
FALL REQUEST FOR GRANT FUNDING

 

 

Despite the delays of a COVID spring season, Santa Monica UUs made a significant financial impact through their small contributions to the Conejo Valley congregation, which is led by the Rev. Nica Eaton-Guinn.  A huge thank-you for your support!

 

The Chalice Lighters program depends upon small contributions ($20) from many UUs in congregations throughout our Pacific Southwest District (PSWD).  Added to a congregation’s own fundraising efforts, PSWD Chalice Lighters make a big difference, especially to smaller congregations trying to grow and thrive in these difficult times.

 

Now the call goes out again.  Contributions from Chalice Lighters will help the UUs of San Luis Obispo to hire a 1/4-time Congregational Life Coordinator.  They believe their volunteer power is abundant but that they need the guidance of a professional to organize most effectively.  San Luis Obispo’s Rev. Rod Richards welcomes standard donations of $20 and also will receive with gratitude donations in any amount.  He writes, “As a congregation of 200+ members, we are at a point where we would benefit greatly from having a staff position devoted to new member assimilation and integration, volunteer and leadership recruitment, and the organization of small groups and opportunities for deepening connections between members.”

 

It is our hope that Santa Monica Chalice Lighters will respond to this new call for support as we did to the first.  Our small contributions before October 31 can make a big difference for our neighbors to the north.

 

If you have not yet signed up to be a Chalice Lighter in our congregation, but would like to participate in this broad-based effort to help our fellow UU churches, please contact Barbara Kernochan to learn just how simple it is to make a difference for our neighbors and for our denomination.  Your $20 donation to one project per year will make you a Chalice Lighter and help us gain the honored title of “Chalice Lighter Congregation.”

 

 

 

More info:

 

Chalice Lighters program:  http://news.uusm.org/becoming-a-chalice-lighter/

 

San Luis Obispo project details:

https://pswduua.org/uncategorized/pswd-fall-2020-chalice-lighters-call/

 

Pacific Southwest District:  https://pswduua.org/

 

Pacific Western Region:  https://www.uua.org/pacific-western

 

 

2020–21 Pledge Drive Update, April 2
IGNITING OUR FAITH

An Update on Developmental Ministry from the Board of Directors
WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED AND WHERE WE'RE GOING

In fall of 2017, UUSM embarked on a journey of developmental ministry: the process of becoming a more “heart healthy” congregation during the period between settled ministers. This required the board of directors to put forth a set of developmental goals so our Unitarian Universalist Association could pair us with a minister with specific strengths to help us achieve our goals and attract a settled minister to help be stronger in bringing more love and justice into the world. After finishing a two-year stint with Rev. Greg Ward we’ve made much progress…and we have much more work to do.

Rev. Jeremiah Kalendae will help us undertake this work ourselves and support us in a ministerial way when it’s appropriate. A full list of the goals we set in Spring 2019 when we chose Rev. Jeremiah to work with us is at the bottom of this article. For now, let’s focus on all we’ve accomplished this first year of Rev. Jeremiah’s ministry with us and what we’ll be undertaking over the next six months.

Developmental Work

Sunday Worship for Transformational Change – We moved to one service to literally bring people together and create a common worship experience. We are evolving the liturgy (the flow of our Sunday worship) to be more interactive. Topics guided by our developmental goals thus far are geared to help break down polarized thinking, provide multi-religious exposure, and introduce anti-racist/anti-oppression concepts to the congregation.

Healthy Congregations – This term comes from the UUA. It’s relatively intuitive, but represents a congregation that is fully grounded in covenantal relations through Healthy Congregation Policies. Our own Healthy Congregations Team (formerly Right Relations) has carried a heavy load helping the congregation develop a Covenant of Right Relations over the first two years of developmental ministry. We’re so grateful for their service. They’re taking some downtime but are ready to be activated when needed.

Membership Development with the Faith Forward program – This vital program is helping provide 360-degree understanding of our UU faith and our Santa Monica congregation to members and visitors new and old. We’re also now offering weekly visitor meetups. We’re excited to be planning a new member celebration to be held very soon.

New Adult Religious Education Model – To live a UU religious life, we are called to embrace religious practice in a variety of ways. A new Adult RE model will collect and reflect back to the congregation all that we do in mind, body, heart, and spirit. Stand by for more!

New Comprehensive Pastoral Care Model – Eventually every congregation member will have a Pastoral Care Associate and Care Ring Associate to provide support and connection to the congregation. This will require a significant amount of training and program development so the first step is to have an executive Pastoral Care Team — minister, Care Ring lead, and Pastoral Care lead — supported by a per diem chaplain who can both provide direct pastoral care and training for a large pastoral care team.

Developing Children’s Religious Education – We are training staff and volunteers to strengthen Children and Youth RE.

Continue Grounding the Congregation in Covenantal Relations with Ministries and Programs Self-Assessment – Rev Jeremiah introduced the Eight Elements of Effective Ministry to the congregation in November. We will be engaging in self-assessment and reflection across the congregation in coming months and then doing it again periodically in years to come.

Congregational Stewardship Video to begin the Mission and Vision Process – More to come on this as we head into pledge drive season in February and March.

Creating a Culture of Sustainability/Regenerativity, Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression, and Multi-Religious Inclusion – This is being woven into worship and leadership development across the congregation.

Creating a Culture of Abundance – We are working to celebrate and support staff and volunteer leaders in more meaningful ways, as well as looking to find new revenue streams to support our congregation. (More on a new fall fundraiser soon!)

Reducing Reliance on Reserves – After our Spring Pledge Drive we will project income out five years to have a better sense of how quickly we can support ourselves without reliance on reserves.

Increase our Support of the UUA Annual Program Fund – Our UUA helps UUSM connect to our larger UU faith. We are better able to amplify our voice by being a part of the larger movement and need to increase our support year-by-year.

Restructuring Board Roles and Responsibilities – We are working to make board service to the community more sustainable so that volunteers are nourished by service rather than burned out by it.

That’s a LOT of work and it will continue into the coming church year. But we believe in this community’s power to nurture transformation for all who come through our doors so that we can alleviate suffering in this world one weary heart at a time.

Peace,
Jacki

By the way, here are the goals as of Spring 2019 when we selected Rev. Jeremiah to work with us.

1) Continue Grounding the Congregation in Covenantal Relations

a. Assist leaders in creating the emotional space where people speak up and feel invited, connected, supported and involved.

b. Develop the strength and skills to address ineffective communication and maladaptive behaviors among congregants, staff and leadership.

c. Deepen the entry into our UU pluralistic heritage, continuing to overcome polarizing ideologies that had gone unchecked in the past.

d. Learn better ways to express hurts and discontent without blame, shame or triangulation and without threats or statements of withdrawal and stone-walling.

2) Mission and Vision Development

a. Re-examine and re-develop our congregational mission and vision and create congregational alignment around to-be-established strategic goals.

b. Explore ways to move beyond “I-church” and begin to understand how a shared ministry is possible.

3) Examining and Redeveloping Systems and Structures

a. Work to complete establishment of charters for committees to clarify decision making authority, reporting, communication and begin clarifying governance structure.

b. Develop a clear path from visitor to leader that conveys rights, responsibilities and meaning of membership.

c. Teach leadership in all aspects of volunteerism including how to think systemically and work interdependently.

d. Address the over-functioning of the staff and key lay leadership by spreading volunteer responsibilities more evenly throughout membership.

e. Re-write policies (especially bylaws) to move beyond a hierarchical cultural distrust of authority and into a transparent, simple, clear and directive for staff, board, committees and lay leaders to work interdependently and cooperatively together.

4) Financial Unity, Vitality and Commitment

a. Ground financial planning and commitment in mission and vision.

b. Continue to raise financial awareness, reduce shame about money and more evenly support the shared ownership of the congregation’s mission.

c. Continue to clean up restricted funds and eliminate directed donations into the operational budget.

d. Develop a planned giving program to cultivate bequests and contributions to the endowment.

e. Continue on the path to end deficit spending by 2022. Become a Fair Share congregation paying full dues by 2022.

5) Deepen Relationships to Self, Others in the Congregation, and with the Larger Community

a. Develop Adult Faith Formation (and RE for people of all ages) to cultivate curiosity and cultural competency.

b. Explore the range of UU identities, cultivating appreciation for perspectives that are uUnfamiliar.

c. Practice empathy, humility and compassionate communication as a path to honesty, inclusivity and ways to move through conflict constructively.

d. Deepen and encourage broader ownership of a shared pastoral care program.

Christmas Eve 2019 at UUSM
ANNUAL PAGEANT AND CANDLELIGHT SERVICES

For a full photo album from this year's Christmas Eve pageant and services, by Carol Ring and Roy Patience, see  http://news.uusm.org/christmas-eve-2019-at-uusm/

Dispatch from the Board of Directors Retreat
DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS AND GRATITUDE

Holiday Blues, Snooze or Yahoos: Share Your Apprehensions and Joy in a Facilitated Dialogue
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3 AT 6.30 PM IN FORBES HALL