Almighty God, grant us a quiet night...

One of the blessings of living at seminary has been the opportunity for regular, communal spiritual practices. These practices include daily chapel, times for Lectio Divina, and Compline, or Night Prayer. Compline is part of the daily offices, times throughout the day for short, liturgical worship together (think “monastery”).

At the seminary, the tradition, since my first year, anyway, is for anywhere from 3 to 10 of us to gather at 10pm for a roughly 15 minute service both spoken and sung (a cappella). In fall and spring we gather outside in the quad between some of the apartment buildings, and in winter we gather inside. It is holy time: to be in the dark, in stillness broken only by confession and psalms spoken in unison, chants and hymns sung by mixed voices, and hugs to share God’s peace. Ideally, I’d venture out to the benches in sweatpants, with my hymnal, and fall right into bed as soon as it was over. It was a wonderful way, especially my first year, to become acquainted with more of the community.

I missed this, more than I expected to, while away from campus on internship. And, I miss it this school year, too. Because of my class schedule, and with not living on campus full-time, I could participate only one night per week.

We discussed a few things in class today that are swirling together a bit:

Conversation surrounding the risks and benefits of streaming worship services, or posting sermons on YouTube. What sort of community does this encourage? What sorts of worship get to be called “real” worship?

The especially participatory nature of social media – the expectation is no longer for passive observers, but rather contributors.

How it’s helpful to compare compromise options, or, said another way, to view things in a continuum. For example, if the choice is between physically attending worship and virtually attending worship (perhaps by following along with a live stream), most of us would say that physically being in worship is preferable, for a number of reasons. But, if the choice is between virtually attending or not attending in any way, that live stream starts to look pretty good.

So, what I’m wondering is how a Compline service via a program like Google Hangouts might work. Google Hangouts can support a group video chat for up to ten people, so it is limited in that way, but I think that’s actually a good thing in this setting. 

Participants would only need a Google account, a copy of the hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and a set time to “meet”. One person could lead, or participants could take turns leading various sections of the liturgy. Either way, I like the participatory nature. Sure, you could follow along in your hymnal while watching a live stream of a worship service, but no one hears you. I’ve never tried communal singing in Hangouts, so that could get interesting, but it’s worth an experiment, anyway! 

What do you think? Is this authentic worship? Would it work? What sorts of groups might benefit from this type of gathering?

And, if you want in on the experiment, let me know – perhaps 9 or 10pm Eastern time, this Wednesday or Thursday evening.