Designed for Miranda Congregational Church during the height of COVID, faced many challenges including whether or not it would be able to be held face to face. As a result, a traditional flyer drop was not an option, instead an online media campaign had to be organised in addition to physical flyers. Utilising official church accounts on Facebook and Instagram, advance notice of the event and previews of what to come were used to tease the upcoming carols service.

With minimal COVID restrictions in place, people were encouraged to host a viewing party in their homes with groups of 20 or less to facilitate face to face worship which had only just been re-introduced. The focus of the night centred around Jesus as a blessing to mankind, a timely reminder amidst all the chaos and frustrations during the time period that God can do amazing things, even when everything seems out of order. Pastor Jeremy Hodson delivered the message, focusing on the gift of Jesus, and how believing and receiving God into our hearts can create meaning and purpose in our lives.

Given the congregation had been highly segmented for approximately half the year, we tried to unite everyone by giving bible readings to a diverse range of church members, and having them read out from oldest to youngest. Additionally, one of the bigger songs of the night was the item: Oh Holy Night, which saw 28 members of the congregation sing together in a Brady Bunch style split screen rendition of the song. This involved mixing all the singers who were recorded separately, often on iPhones to create a cohesive sound track, syncing the audio up with each individual video, and editing the shots together to showcase everyone in different ways. This was a great way to showcase a range of people worshipping together from their own homes as they were doing on the night of the livestream.

Similar to 2018 and 2019, musical styles were spread across three bands, using clarinets, saxophones and violin in addition to traditional instruments. Original arrangements were written for Away In A Manger (2020) and We Three Kings (2020). All songs were pre-recorded, with the audio mix edited in Pro Tools, and the video edited in Adobe Premier Pro.

The live streamed service also allowed for greater experimentation with set design, bringing a couch on stage for the sermon to relate back to the idea that the congregation was worshiping together on couches across the Sutherland Shire.

You can watch the full service, or look at individual songs from the night here: