How livestreaming came to St. Francis of Assisi:
When the pandemic hit New York and we had to enter our shutdown, here at St. Francis we scrambled to figure out how to continue to reach out to and connect with all of you. Streaming our Masses was the first priority. Never having done this ourselves here, it was not easy to pull together equipment and expertise when everything was closing around us. Within a week, and with relatively inexpensive equipment, we were able to stream our Lenten Masses, Holy Week, Easter and Mass ever since.
If you were with us from the beginning, you know that it was a rough start and we had to work out some issues. We appreciate your patience and support, especially through our rocky beginning.
Where we are today:
Well, six months later, we are happy to bring you a new and improved livestream experience! Many of you expressed how important these livestreams are, and have requested that we make this a permanent part of our ministry together. We agree. Because of your encouragement and support we have invested in new and more appropriate livestreaming cameras, computer equipment and some training for our staff.
If you have been watching our noon time daily Mass you will see the difference our new system makes in the quality of the transmission. This new system will allow us to bring you a much better prayer experience and we have made this a permanent part of our parish life together so that even after the pandemic passes, our people can join us for Mass online if you are away, if the weather is really bad, or if you are home sick.
Introducing St. Francis Live!
We have also created a new portal on our website to better organize access to all of our streamed liturgies. We call it St. Francis Live!. At St. Francis Live! you can see our Sunday and Feast day Masses, the Korean Community Sunday Mass, our Daily noontime Mass and special events. They are all conveniently located on the same page. You can scroll through past events to find a liturgy you may have missed.
A $15,000 investment in our ministry
We invested just over $15,000 on the new and improved livestream experience. Some of you have already donated toward this new way of keeping connected. As you can imagine, the pandemic has impacted our collections, just as it has impacted many in our community. For those who can, it would be very helpful if you would like to make a special contribution toward this new new part of our ministry.