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Digitization and Roman Catholic immigrants in Frankfurt/Germany

Posted on November 6, 2024 - 1:24 pm by

Brigitta Sassin, theologian and pastoral worker for religious immigrant communities in Frankfurt/Germany, introduced the project ‘International Stations of the Cross’ at the Dialogue Conference of the ReCoVirA-Project Germany on June 24th. This perspective expanded the projects’ findings and understanding of the transnational experience of religious communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Contact: sassin@stadtkirche-ffm.de

Frankfurt has always been a melting pot of people from many nations. Currently, we count 180 nationalities in the city, as well as different religions and religious denominations, all kinds of possible languages, and a seemingly endless variety of cultures.

Looking back at the painful months of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of us can effortlessly remember the feelings of solitude and isolation, the fear of a still unknown virus, and the yearning for life’s normal rhythms to return. How did Catholic immigrants experience those weeks and months? How did they cope under the new laws mandating isolation and enforcing bodily distance?

Catholic immigrants painfully felt the burden of strict isolation during those months. When religious gatherings provide the weekly comfort and strength needed to get through a long week of work, one feels the absence of Sundays spent in community. Priests, pastoral workers, and very creative lay people worked hard creating new spaces that enabled community in the digital age. Choir rehearsals were held via zoom – but please ensure that your microphone is turned off when you start singing! Churches were kept open for the faithful, who could come and sit at precisely marked seats, leaving enough distance to hopefully remain protected. A true discovery was the digital Mass, the celebration of the communal Lord’s Supper in the isolation of one’s living room. In spite of all the hardship, people took great zeal to get Sunday Mass broadcasted, and were delighted to discover new connections. All of the sudden, it was possible to overcome the geographical distance between continents (while respecting the different time zones) and celebrate together – even together with family members and loved ones living in different countries! This was a truly transnational discovery, nurturing in a new and unexpected way.

It is necessary to acknowledge all the feelings of helplessness: for quite some time, travel was not possible. No human touch was felt via screen, no smell of your old mother’s kitchen, no meal at a common table. People could not attend the funerals of their loved ones. The pain of these losses cannot be wiped away.

In Frankfurt we have tried to give a voice to those in these very painful situations, to be present in the contradictions the virus had caused, and to pray for healing. A traditional prayer, the Stations of the Cross, has become an inspiring and touching testimony of those weeks in 2020. 14 language communities sent in a short description of their experiences during the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, and have tried to connect it with the suffering Jesus. These resulting ‘International Stations of the Cross’ have been published on our website (https://geistlich.net/kreuzweg-der-welt-in-zeiten-von-corona-2020) and have become a testament of new transnational connectedness in spite of bodily separation.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Vietnamese Buddhist community in Finland

Posted on September 5, 2024 - 4:57 pm by
Katriina Hulkkonen and Linda Annunen, Åbo Akademi University

In the Recovira project, we examine the effects of the pandemic in three distinct types of religious communities: in a large, majority, or institutional community with extensive resources, in a firmly established minority community, and in a less established, often newer, community. In Finland, we chose the local Vietnamese Buddhist community for the project to represent the latter, i.e. newer, community. The Vietnamese Buddhist community is a rather small and rather recently established religious community with a quite modest level of organization. The community has been active in Finland since the 1980s (especially since the 90s) and at present host three temples in different parts of Southern Finland. Its estimated number of members is ca 6,400. (See Härkönen and Cairns 2023.)

For the research project, we interviewed members of the Vietnamese Buddhist community, such as the monk, and elderly members, and conducted participant observation at their most important annual celebrations. The community members emphasized the importance of their local temple. In the community, the activities focused specifically on gathering in the temple for prayer or annual celebrations. The construction of the temple in Finland was already significant for the community, as its purpose was to preserve the Vietnamese tradition for younger generations. Based on interview and observation data, the pandemic particularly affected the organization of community events.  

Due to the pandemic, many religious communities examined by the Recovira project moved their rituals and social events to digital platforms. Instead, the local Vietnamese Buddhist community organized small-scale events face-to-face, in connection with some activities and within the limits of gathering restrictions at the temple. According to our interviewees, the community did not have unambiguous rules for who could participate in these events, but it was restricted to the active members of the community at the time. In addition to social effects, the restrictions on gatherings had negative economic impact for the temple community, which the other two communities in our project – The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and Jehovah’s Witnesses, did not experience to the same extent. Similar economic differences between mainstream and minority religions have also been observed in previous pandemic research. The temple we examined collected donations during large celebrations, so the decrease in the number of people participating in the temple events directly affected the community’s finances. For the community, this meant, for example, postponing some investments. After the pandemic, the community had sought to organize larger annual celebrations (e.g., the central Vu Lan festival) by investing in marketing and programming.

Sources:
Härkonen, Mitra, and Johannes Cairns (eds.) 2023. Buddhalaisuus Suomessa. Helsinki: Suomen Itämainen Seura.

Auf dem Weg zur digitalen Gemeinde

Posted on September 5, 2024 - 4:32 pm by
Author: Eugen El, Leiter der Kommunikation und Digitalisierung, Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt am Main

Eugen El, Leiter der Kommunikation und Digitalisierung, Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt am Main, hat auf der Dialogtagung des ReCoVirA-Projekts Deutschland am 24. Juni die Gemeinde-App der Jüdischen Gemeinde Frankfurt vorgestellt und damit die Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojekts um eine Perspektive aus der Praxis bereichert.

Es ist ein Pionierprojekt: Seit Februar 2024 bietet die Jüdische Gemeinde Frankfurt eine eigene App an, die kostenlos für Apple- und Android-Geräte erhältlich ist. Die „JG-FFM“ betitelte Gemeinde-App wurde bislang über 1700-mal heruntergeladen. Sie steht allen Nutzern offen, die sich über das Gemeindeleben und das jüdische Frankfurt informieren wollen. Gemeindemitgliedern bietet sie überdies einige zusätzliche Funktionen, die in einem geschützten Bereich zu finden sind.

Die Idee zur Entwicklung einer eigenen App entstand, nachdem unsere Gemeinde im Jahr 2020 ein Dezernat für Digitalisierung eingerichtet hatte, dessen ehrenamtliche Leitung Benjamin Graumann übernahm. Zum Projektauftakt führte eine Web-Agentur einen Workshop mit Gemeindemitarbeitern durch, bei dem übergreifende Ziele erarbeitet sowie konkrete Bedarfe und Zielgruppen identifiziert wurden. 

Nach der Entscheidung für einen Anbieterwechsel wurden zwei weitere Agenturen gebeten, einen App-Prototyp zu entwickeln. Der Software- und App-Entwickler vmapit konnte sich mit seinem auf Vereine, Kommunen und kleine Unternehmen zugeschnittenen Produkt „Appack“ durchsetzen. Vmapit stellte uns eine Testversion der App zur Verfügung, die wir seit 2022 kontinuierlich weiterentwickelten und vervollständigten.

Dabei flossen die Rückmeldungen aus der Testnutzergruppe und einem Workshop mit ausgewählten Gemeindeabteilungen ein. Mehrere Präsentationen im Gemeinderat und der Digitalisierungskommission rundeten das Feedback ab. Am 18. Februar 2024 konnte die Gemeinde-App JG-FFM offiziell vorgestellt werden. Gemeindemitglieder und Multiplikatoren aus der Stadtgesellschaft kamen in der Aula der I. E. Lichtigfeld-Schule im Philanthropin zusammen, um gemeinsam die Veröffentlichung der App zu feiern und mit Digitalexpertinnen und -experten ins Gespräch zu kommen.

Benjamin Graumann sprach ebenso zum Publikum wie Stadträtin Eileen O’Sullivan, Dezernentin für Bürger:innen, Digitales und Internationales. Die Stadt Frankfurt am Main fördert Projekt großzügig. Irina Rosensaft, Leiterin des Fachbereichs Digitale Transformation der Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (ZWST), hielt einen Keynote-Vortrag zu den Chancen und Risiken der Digitalisierung in der jüdischen Gemeinschaft.

Unsere App JG-FFM konnte vor Ort ausprobiert werden. Mit der App haben die Nutzerinnen und Nutzer unsere Gemeinde immer und überall dabei. Der Kalender bietet einen Überblick über sämtliche Gemeinde-Events und ermöglicht den schnellen Export in den Handykalender. Er liefert auch die aktuellen Gebets- und Schabbatzeiten und informiert über jüdische Feiertage. Dank der regelmäßig verschickten Push-Mitteilungen bleiben die App-Nutzer stets aktuell informiert. Ebenso wie im Kalender besteht dabei die Möglichkeit, zwischen mehreren thematisch abgestimmten News-Kanälen auszuwählen.

Unsere App JG-FFM ist ein Meilenstein auf dem Weg zur digitalen Gemeinde. Von unserem Know-how werden jüdische Gemeinden in ganz Deutschland profitieren können. Entsprechend neugierig verfolgen sie den Fortgang dieses Projekts. Unsere Erfahrungen sind bislang sehr positiv, und auch das Nutzerfeedback ist äußerst ermutigend. Mit dem Release der App und dem Aufbau eines stabilen Nutzerstamms hat unsere Arbeit indes erst begonnen. In den kommenden Monaten und Jahren gilt es, das volle Potenzial unserer Gemeinde-App auszuschöpfen.

App-Download für iOS: https://apps.apple.com/de/app/jg-ffm/id6477564055
App-Download für Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.android.appack.jg_ffm&pli=1

Image credit: Image provided by the author

Exploring Religious Socialisation in a Mediatised World

Posted on August 22, 2024 - 2:02 pm by
Author: Erkan Binici, Research Associate, University of Tübingen

Erkan Binici, a research associate and doctoral candidate in Islamic religious education at the University of Tübingen, introduced his research in the Dialogue Conference of ReCoVirA-Project Germany on June 24th. This perspective expanded the projects’ findings and understanding of the situation of adolescents in religious communities and the shifts from the pandemic.

In today’s digital age, the intersection of media and religion is prominent in various contexts. Multiple examples from popular culture, illustrate how religion is represented and used in media. This blend of religion and media is particularly significant among young people.

Manfred L. Pirner, a protestant religious educator, proposed in 2004 that the media socialisation of children and adolescents also involves religious socialisation, coining the term ‘religious media socialisation’: “The diverse interconnections and parallels between media and religion in our culture suggest that the media socialisation of today’s children and adolescents is also, to a significant extent, religious socialisation” (Pirner 2004, p. 11)1.

To better understand this phenomenon, I designed an empirical study as part of my doctoral dissertation. This research investigates how young Muslims in Germany perceive and engage with religion in media. Through qualitative interviews with twelve Muslim adolescents aged 12-19, the study explores their media use and the presence of religion in their everyday media interactions. The research integrates theories of mediatisation, socialisation, and praxeological sociology of knowledge. This framework operationalises the research subject for empirical investigation into religious socialisation in a mediatised world.

In examining how young Muslims in Germany perceive and engage with religion in the media, some key themes emerged:
– Many interviewees noted that the portrayal of Islam and Muslims in the media is predominantly negative, characterised by repetitive stereotypes and a lack of positive representation. They also criticised discrimination and double standards in media reporting, especially concerning crime.

– Despite using media for religious information, the participants expressed distrust and scepticism towards media sources, often preferring personal sources like parents. Media exposure triggered religious questions, leading to information overload and further reliance on trusted individuals.

– Muslim influencers were relevant to the participants, even when the content was not explicitly religious. Representation remained important, with influencers like the Datteltäter2 satire group being frequently mentioned. Religious influencers also played a role in their everyday engagement with religious topics.

– The adolescents generally exhibit a critical stance towards media and commonly express a desire to avoid extremist content. However, several interviewees reported using certain websites and consuming content originating from extremist groups without recognizing its extremist nature. This observation suggests that a general critical attitude towards media is insufficient to prevent the consumption of problematic content. Instead, it necessitates a deeper engagement and critical understanding of the specific characteristics and messages of extremist media.

– The impact of religiosity on media usage varied, with some participants practicing self-imposed media restrictions based on religious beliefs, such as avoiding sexualised content and adhering to respectful communication norms. For religious practice, various media tools were utilised, such as prayer time apps and Quran apps, with some media being repurposed pragmatically for religious activities.

The analysis reveals that the interaction with religion in media is deeply embedded in the general media practices of young Muslims. This study underscores the significant intersection of media and religion in their lives, with important implications for Islamic religious education and media pedagogy. By understanding these dynamics, educators can better align religious education with the lived experiences of adolescents, making it more relevant and engaging. The study will be published soon and aims to enrich research in this area, calling for further empirical studies to continue exploring these critical intersections.

Literature

  1. Pirner, M. L. (2004). Religiöse Mediensozialisation. Empirische Studien zu Zusammenhängen zwischen Mediennutzung und Religiosität bei SchülerInnen und deren Wahrnehmung durch LehrerInnen. kopaed.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF_oOFgq8qwi7HRGTJSsZ-g

Image credit: Image provided by the author

The Online Eventification in Religious Communities in Denmark

Posted on August 1, 2024 - 9:21 am by
Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Postdoctoral Researcher, Aarhus University

As the summer vacations come to an end in Denmark, we can reflect upon the current work the Danish Recovira team is undertaking. In the last blogpost, we investigated the importance of the senses in relation to how members of religious groups conceptualized the feeling of community. We highlighted how digital tools clearly had limitations in the construction of ‘authentic’ community for our informants. Nevertheless, there are ways in which the communities employ digital tools, and we will present these in this blogpost.

It is clear from our data that all religious groups do in fact have digital presences across various media such as Facebook, Instagram and websites. The ideational dimension of the homepages show that community building is indeed important for the groups as shown through advertising their offline activities. Members can get knowledge of others in the community, they can communicate with each other, the community as such can communicate to its members, and it can share values and history on the digital platforms. There is, however, one particularly important function that social media fulfill: the communication of events in the religious groups or the eventification in these groups. Eventification (sometimes used interchangeably with festivalization) encompasses the “social phenomenon that seems to compensate for the lack of physical contact in modern life and cyberspace, but also the lack of meaning in an overly material world. Humans like (and need) to be together, to touch, hug, celebrate, experience, feel happy. Intentional communities, free cultural spaces, parties, and festivals make us feel connected, tolerant, and inclined to share” (Sala 2021). While meeting in the digital sphere thus seemed less meaningful to an overwhelmingly big proportion of our informants, the online meditation of physical events taking place in the various groups was an essential feature of social media and should not be underestimated. We are told in interviews that informants routinely check the websites and Facebook pages of their respective communities, and that this eases accessibility as well as entrance to the groups. We explore this theme in a forthcoming article and promise to return to this point.

image credit: Photo by Nitin Dhumal: https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-lens-sunglasses-on-sand-near-sea-at-sunset-selective-focus-photography-46710/

Presenting the Recovira project at the joint conference of religious studies and theology

Posted on May 30, 2024 - 3:05 pm by
Katriina Hulkkonen and Linda Annunen, Åbo Akademi University

The biannual Research Conference in Theology and Religion was held in Turku on May 22–24. The conference was organized this year for the third time under the theme “Traditions and transitions. Milestones and continuities”. The conference brings together mainly Finnish researchers of religion who are interested in a wide variety of topics. We presented our Recovira research in the session “Seven keys in understanding lived religion”, chaired by Björn Vikström, Professor of Theology and Tomas Ray, University Teacher at Åbo Akademi University.

During the lived religion session, Ilona Blumgrund and Iiris Nikanne used interview materials to discuss the conversion of asylum seekers to Christianity. Both of their presentations raised questions in the audience about authenticity and the relationship between researcher and interlocutors. In her paper, Martina Björkander discussed what it is like to study lived theology in the case of the Pentecostal community. In addition, she challenged the audience to discuss what theological research is like or could be. Tomas Ray analysed Lutheran identity in multicultural Malaysia from the perspective of Nancy Ammerman’s characteristics of lived religion, and Anoo Niskanen examined identity motives in her own study on the Laestadian community. First, interest in themes related to belonging and everyday practices united all these presentations. Second, these papers highlighted certain kinds of creativity, such as the diversity of belonging or the creativity of theology and religious studies.

Our presentation “COVID-19 pandemic and ritual renewal in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland – digital solutions and improvisation” concluded this session. In our paper, we addressed creativity – in the case of institutional religion and ritual. We discussed the ritual renewal caused by the pandemic from the perspective of improvisation. Our analysis focused on Facebook nightly hymn singing sessions that one urban congregation launched during the pandemic. With the help of this example, we examined the development of digital ritual, and the reasons for its popularity, such as accessibility and homespun style. Finally, we discussed the aspects that limit the renewal of digital rituals. According to this evening broadcast case, the ritual renewal initiated by the pandemic was a process of improvisation that took place especially in relation to digital tools, religious traditions, different spaces, and resources, and gave rise to a ritual culture of mundanity and permissiveness.

The presentations of the session offered an interesting setting for the study of contemporary everyday religiosity. Afterwards, we reflected, for example, on how conference presentations could be built in a more conversational direction, and how the researcher’s own childhood experiences could in some cases provide a starting point for analysis. In addition, the session raised questions about the benefits and shortcomings of the concept of lived religion and the need for longer-term follow-up studies on some research topics.

Predstavitev rezultatov projekta slovenski strokovni javnosti

Posted on May 30, 2024 - 3:00 pm by
Katja K. Ošljak in Aleš Črnič, University of Ljubljana

Aleš Črnič je 15. maja 2024 sodeloval na okrogli mizi v organizaciji Inštituta za filozofske in religijske študije ZRS Koper v palači Tiepolo Gravisi, kjer je v diskusiji z naslovom Duhovnost, estetika in teorije zarote v online kulturi predstavil tudi zasnovo in prve rezultate projekta Recovira.

Tibor Hrs Pandur, Aleš Črnič in Gorazd Andrejč med pogovorom.

Okrogla miza Duhovnost, estetika in teorije zarote v online kulturi je bila eksplorativni in interdisciplinarni pogovor o novih manifestacijah religije in duhovnosti v spletni oziroma digitalni kulturi. V Centru Humanističnih znanosti ZRS Koper sta na dogodku poleg religiologa Aleša Črniča sodelovala filozof Gorazd Andrejč in dramaturg ter avtor Tibor Hrs Pandur.

Kot so v napovedniku dogodka zapisali organizatorji okrogle mize, sta online duhovnost in religija prepleteni z multimedijskimi vsebinami, ki imajo pogosto izrazito estetsko dimenzijo. Hkrati pa se sodobna duhovnost v online prostoru pogosto povezuje s starimi in novimi teorijami zarote, ki zavračajo mainstream sliko sveta, ki temelji na sodobni znanosti.

Na okrogli mizi so se o teh temah pogovarjali na podlagi nedavnih znanstvenih raziskav ter filozofskih perspektiv – tudi na podlagi prvih rezultatov mednarodnega projekta Religijske skupnosti v virtualni dobi (Recovira).

Islam and Covid on UK Twitter in early 2020

Posted on May 20, 2024 - 8:50 am by
Dr Sean Durbin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Manchester Metropolitan University

In addition to the ethnographic fieldwork that we are conducting across different communities in Europe for this project, we have also been working on a social media strand, aimed at helping us understand how people online were discussing religion in relation to the restrictions imposed in the early months of the pandemic from March to June 2020.

To do this we have been using a social listening platform that allows us to scrape publicly available data off the web and analyse it, making it useful to conduct discourse analysis of large amounts of naturally occurring data. In this context, scraping refers to a technique for the automated collection of online data. Scrapers are essentially bits of software code that enable researchers to automatically download data from the web, which can then be classified and modelled in different ways. 

Using boolean search terms related to Islam, Christianity and other religious traditions in conjunction with pandemic related keywords such as lockdown, COVID-19, etc, we originally hoped to see how different communities talked about what they were doing to adapt their practices to a the sudden requirement to stay indoors. However, in an effort at cross-country comparability, as well as other practical considerations, we opted instead to focus on the public discussion that was occurring online about religion/religious communities, and related issues (e.g. religious freedom).

What we have found in the UK, is that Muslims and Islam were vastly overrepresented in this online discussion. Although Muslims represent roughly 6% of the population in the UK they made up roughly 75% of the online discussion of religious groups in our data scrape. Christians and Christianity on the other hand made up only 19% of mentions online.

What accounts for this over representation? Based on our analysis of the most engaged tweets, much of the conversation around Muslims online was driven in some way by claims or beliefs that Muslims would not abide by lockdown rules, especially over the Ramadan period, and therefore would contribute to the spread of COVID-19. This topic was then spread further by other Twitter users who would mock or rebuke these claims, all of which contributed to the over-representation of Muslims in public Twitter discourse during our period of focus.

Digitalization and the Catholic community

Posted on May 19, 2024 - 5:57 pm by
Dr Ewa Stachowska, Institute of Social Prevention and Resocialization, University of Warsaw.

In the springtime the Polish team is focused on work in two main areas. The first one is to prepare an article entitled Digitalization and the Catholic religious community in Poland, which revolves around the role and meaning of the process of digitalization in the Catholic community. The article includes an analysis of the preliminary results of the qualitative research conducted in this community. The Catholic Church is the largest denomination in Poland, hence the first of the articles presents results concerning this community. The process of digitalization is widespread in our times, and although in the Catholic community in Poland it is noticeable that not only the direct contact is approved of, the popularity of traditional media (such as the radio and TV) is also more visible, as it performed a crucial role in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital tools have been (and still are) a form of facilitating communication and information flow in the Catholic community. However, they are identified by the respondents as an instrument shaping the “digital sacred” to a smaller degree. It is worth noting that the aforementioned direction of perceiving digital tools is more noticeable among the older generations than among the young. What is more, the Catholic community in Poland is successively becoming a “senior community”, as secularization is accelerating especially among young people (which is shown in numerous research, e.g. carried out by PEW Research Center, CBOS – Public Opinion Research Center, ESS). An interesting thread emerging from the conducted research, which will undergo a broader analysis, is the fact that on the linguistic level the respondents perceive taking part in media rituals as “viewing”. This indicates a specific “oversimplification”, or even “trivialization” (cf. N. Postman) of participation in the media liturgy.

The second area of work undertaken by the Polish team concerns the preparation of papers for the 7th International Congress of Religious Studies, which will be held in Gdynia (Poland) from 19th-21st June 2024.[1] The Congress is a cyclical event in the circle of specialists of religious studies in Poland. This year its subject is: Religions. Tradition and Modernity. The engagement of the team during the Congress involves: participating in the scientific committee, coordinating the section of: Transformations of Religiosity and Non-religiosity in Sociological Research by Ewa Stachowska, delivering a paper entitled Minority Religious Communities and Digitalization in Poland. Moreover, arrangements are being made concerning the organization of a discussion panel Religion and Digitalization during the Congress.

[1] https://www.ptr.edu.pl/index.php/o-towarzystwie/aktualnosci/item/172-vii-miedzynarodowy-kongres-religioznawczy

Technology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Posted on May 18, 2024 - 5:15 pm by
Alexandra Berg, Åbo Akademi University

Alexandra Berg, first year student at Åbo Akademi University, has assisted the Finnish Recovira-team with participant observations for the projects’ aesthetic analysis. Here you can read about her observations and experiences when visiting the Jehovah’s Witnesses last winter.

Last year, in the gloomy midwinter, we went to visit the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were a well-dressed group of people, who treated us with warmth and consideration. We attended an event set in the Kingdom Hall’s main lecture hall; a large and bright room filled with dozens of people. I was excited and a bit nervous. I had never been to a Jehovah’s Witness event before. My nervousness proved to be unnecessary, because when we arrived everyone was hospitable and did their best to make us feel welcome.

I found it very interesting to notice how highly digitised the gathering was. There were two large TV screens in the front of the hall, angled downwards, so the audience could easily see them. The TVs were actively used during the sermon, displaying text or pictures relevant to the topic. At one point, everyone who was able to, stood up and sang together, and the lyrics were shown on the TV screens. The atmosphere in the room was relaxed. I got the impression that everyone was comfortable singing, and the songs were familiar to them.  There was a separate desk in the room with computer monitors. Towards the end of the sermon, the congregation watched videos portraying scenarios one might encounter when doing mission work, and how to navigate certain situations. 

The usage of mobile phones was highly encouraged during the lecture. Almost everyone had an app containing material and resources related to the teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The event’s schedule and program were available in the app, as well as reading materials, such as Bible verses, think-pieces about life and faith, and issues of Watchtower. In an interactive section during the sermon, people received prompts on their apps, and they could answer questions posed in the app.

Various speakers spoke into microphones. There were microphones located by the individual seats. Many members of the audience took their turns to answer questions or give their insights. The sound was loud enough to be clearly heard, but at a comfortable volume suited to the hall’s size and acoustic capabilities. 

I really enjoyed the event and meeting all the people. They were very friendly and happy to converse with me. I was surprised at the smooth incorporation of technology, and it was very intriguing to meet so many new people.

-Alexandra Berg

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