MARYSVILLE – St. Mary’s Parish started the new year with a new outreach: live streaming of the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass on its website.
“It’s a wonderful way to evangelize,” said Father Dwight Lewis, priest administrator at the Marysville parish. “If we believe what we do here at Mass is important, then we should use every available type of media to spread that message.”
The broadcasts began Jan. 1, just as Father Lewis promised his parishioners since arriving last summer. Father Lewis chose parishioner Erin Grace to make the Web Mass project happen. Masses are being streamed live and are available in video archives through the parish website, which Grace has redesigned.
Already parishioners have posted grateful comments for having their parish Mass available online — along with suggestions for improving the broadcasts.
“Thank you Lord for facilitating this live event,” a parishioner wrote. “I was under the weather but did not miss the opportunity to listen to the word of God. Good job, Father Dwight.” Another post reads: “Great homily … but a bit too much static.”
Streaming Sunday Mass is a way “to touch the sick and our shut-ins, to help them feel connected to their parish community when they are unable to be here,” Father Lewis said. “Many people may find the word of God just surfing the Internet and finding our Masses, just as people have turned to the Mass on EWTN,” he added.
Many parishes around the country stream their Masses, and locally there is at least one other parish doing the same: Assumption Parish in Seattle, which began its broadcasts several months ago, said Carol Durbin, Assumption’s pastoral assistant for administration.
St. Mary’s and Assumption had similar technical issues when they began: The wireless computer connection wasn’t reliable, so each changed to a direct Ethernet link.
“Broadcasting Mass on the Internet isn’t as easy as it sounds,” Durbin said, “but the parishioners sure like it.”