Today, it’s the Premier Digital Conference. Normally, I would be meeting with 5-600+ other Christians in London to talk digital and church, followed by a swish awards ceremony. As with everybody else’s events this year, the event has had to go online - which in many ways is great - because my energy is poor - so this can be done in comfort from the sofa + an early night afterwards… and earlier this week already had 1000+ people signed up!

Rev Bryony Taylor and I are doing two sessions, a 10 minute keynote at 1.15pm, and a 30 minute breakout session on hybrid church and mission at 2.25pm. Our slides are here:

• Bex’s blogs about cancer
• Bex’s slidedecks
• Bex’s press articles
• Bryony’s blogs about COVID/church - lots of practical tips
• Deanna Thompson - Virtual Body of Christ
• Nick Baines - returning to church after the first lockdown
• Bryony ‘Stations of the Spirit’ video
• Robb Sutherland: the idea of pie
• Holy Pandemic meme group
• Miranda Threlfall-Holmes re communion online
• Pete Phillips: piece re church buildings
• Heidi Campbell: The distanced church
• Bex’s article in Surveillance and Society re being a Christian online
• Grove books: hybrid church
• Craig Philbrick - digital tools for discipleship
• Bex: legal sources of images (may need updating!)
• Premier Digital Church (FB Group)
• Church Comms Collective UK (FB group for UK church comms people)
• CPAS - Everybody Welcome Online (May 2020)
• CPAS Disciplekit
• Church of England Digital Labs
• Faith Online

Hopefully they’ll be lots more links shared on the hashtag today - there are so many resources online - there could be less reinvention of the wheel and people building on each other’s expertise within individual parishes (which maybe would give a bit more space to continue some of the digital work that has been accelerated this year).

An opportunity to contribute to research:

Have you been to a religious service during the pandemic? We want to hear from you. A major new research project at Manchester Metropolitan University is looking at how religious communities across the UK have adapted to the pandemic and its restrictions. The project examines the new ways that religious communities of all kinds are coming together in these difficult times and use those findings to help these communities build resilience for the future. To help us do this better, please take our survey Whether you’re a regular attender, a religious leader, or just come to the occasional wedding or funeral, we’d like to hear from you. It’s all at our website, https://bric19.mmu.ac.uk/ Please complete it and forward around the link. Thanks!