Guidelines for the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Thursday, March 5, 2020 | Diocesan News

Guidelines for Regathering for In-Person Worship

From Bishop Thompson’s Office

From State and Local Government

From the Episcopal Church and Other Sources

Pastoral Notes from Bishop Thompson

Prayer Resources

Please keep those who are ill, caregivers, first responders, and medical providers in your prayers. Check often on the elderly, vulnerable, and those who you have not heard from in some time.

Faith-Based Response to COVID-19

Individual Prevention

  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you sneeze or cough.
  • Wash your hands after coughing, sneezing, handling diapers, preparing food or using the bathroom.

Selfcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Liturgical Guidelines

Online worship services in the Diocese of Louisiana:

  • Christ Church Cathedral has a live broadcast of their 10 a.m. Sunday service. You can listen to it on the radio at WGSO 990AM or online here: https://wgso.com/ or listen to an archived recording of the service on their website here .
  • Click here for a list of churches with a livestream of their services and those with sermon archives.

Useful guides on live streaming church services:

Options to livestreaming to Facebook Live:

What if Facebook Live is no longer an option? Do you have a Plan B? Here are a few ideas:

  • Video the entire service beforehand. People can even video their parts separately. Upload the video to Facebook and YouTube and use the “premier” feature. It will schedule the video to publish at whatever time you need it to and send out a notification to your followers that the video is now available to view. Here is a tutorial on how to do that. Warning: People are reporting that it is taking hours to upload a 30-minute video. Plan well in advance of when you want your video to appear on Facebook.
  • Other streaming services such as Streamyard or Onestream.live
  • Record your service as a podcast and upload it to sites like iTunes, SoundCloud, BuzzSprout, or Google Play Music. You can share it to your social media sites. Just like the video option, people can record their part separately. A tutorial will be added soon. Here is an example from Grace Church, Newton, MA.

Creating Safe Church and Online Space

  • Follow the Safe Church guidelines. Here is a video tutorial on creating a safe online space.
  • Protect yourself from Zoombombing. That is when “trolls” join the meeting to intentionally cause disruption or share inappropriate images or messages. They usually find these meetings from Zoom links found in public places such as social media or websites. Learn more Zoombombing and how to prevent it from Episcopal Cafe here and Forbes here.

Copyright & Licensing Information for Livestreaming

Purchase a streaming license:

  • OneLicense catalog includes The Hymnal 1982 and other hymnals authorized by the Episcopal Church
  • CCLI has a catalog of over 300,000 Christian songs
  • CCS has a catalog of over 17 million songs and covers both secular and Christian songs from all genres.

Public domain sources:

Resources guides from various platforms:

Communication Tools

Online Giving

View our online giving platform guide.

Read Funding Ministry During the Covid-19 Crisis on the Episcopal Church Foundation blog.

Paycheck Protection Program

There have been a lot of questions and information circulating about the details of the stimulus plan. We strongly recommend that you proceed cautiously as the landscape continues to change. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available. We have attached three documents, distributed through the Office the Treasury. They are attached here:  

Insurance Issues

More Information on COVID-19