For cathedrals and parishes
Your congregation scans a QR code and the service opens in a size they can read. Someone on your team moves it on, and every phone follows. It is used every day at Southwark Cathedral.
No app to install, no account to make. It starts from the PDF your parish office already produces.
“I used to watch people really struggling with it, because a PDF is just not very handy to use on a mobile phone.”
Tony Piper, who runs the livestream at Southwark Cathedral and built this for the people in the pews there.
Nothing changes for the parish office. The PDF they make is where it starts. Walk through a Sunday, step by step →
The order of service the office already makes goes in as it is. It comes out as plain text that fits any screen, ready to check before Sunday.
Print it once and put it on the door, the pew sheet or the screen. It always opens whichever service is on now.
One person on the team, from a phone or a laptop, moves the service through the readings, the prayers and the hymn verses. Every open phone follows.
Close the phone for the sermon. Open it again, and it is at the right place. A typo fixed on the day reaches every phone too.
Four reasons, in the order people tend to ask about them.
Everyone picks their own text size, font and background, with dark mode for a dim nave in winter. The default typeface is Atkinson Hyperlegible, designed for people with low vision. Nobody has to ask for the large-print copy, because every copy is large print if they want it to be.
Having the words in front of you also helps you concentrate on what you're hearing. Tony calls it “a bit like having subtitles”, which is really helpful for neurodivergent people.
A lot of people don't know how a service goes, and feel it. The page keeps their place for them, so a first visit is less daunting, and nobody has to ask the person next to them which page we're on.
Translations sit under each paragraph in the languages your community speaks, including right-to-left ones. People at home see the words beside the livestream.
Most printed booklets are handed back at the end of the service. At the cathedral they are in the recycling by lunchtime. Every person reading on a phone is a booklet that never needed printing.
The usual argument for print is that people like to take the notices home. The whole service, notices included, stays on their phone afterwards.
If your parish is working towards an Eco Church award from A Rocha UK, printing less is the kind of change you can include.
Fewer booklets printed every week, and no separate large-print run. Keep a few paper copies for those who would rather not use a phone, and print fewer of the rest.
Tony expected people to switch page-following off, because he thought it would be annoying. About one in ten do. The rest leave it on, because it means they never have to touch their phone to scroll. He measures it live from the viewer during services.
The same is true for people watching from home. The words sit beside the video and move with the service.
Morning Prayer is the hardest case, because it is all said and the next bit is often a long scroll away. A follower that turns the page by listening to the speech is on trial there now.
Put the same order of service on a TV or projector in church, or use it as a source for your livestream. It moves on with everyone's phones, in large type, with a translation beside the English if you have one. Between services the screen shows the next service and a QR code to scan. See the order of service, end to end →
It was first used for a livestreamed service with family abroad, so that they would feel welcome.
The English stays where it is, because that is what people hear. The translation sits underneath each paragraph and follows along like everything else. Readers choose their language at the top of the page.
You can offer as many languages as you have translations for, including right-to-left scripts such as Farsi.
Open the service on a laptop and the words sit beside the livestream. On a phone the video sits above the text. Either way the page moves with the service, so someone housebound is following in the same place as someone in the nave.
If your parish streams on YouTube, the same system schedules the broadcasts and keeps each service page in step with them. That is where StreamScheduler started. See scheduling
Most parishes start from the same place: a PDF, a photocopier and a few people who would use their phones if the PDF weren't such a chore. Offering this across a diocese means every parish gets the same accessible order of service, without each one finding and funding it alone.
Not to read it. Only the people who prepare services, and they get an invitation.
No. Keep printed copies for the people who want them, including large print. You'll probably need fewer, though: at Southwark most booklets are handed back at the end anyway.
Not directly yet. Save it as a PDF and upload that.
No. If nobody does, people simply scroll. If someone does, everyone stays together.
Yes. The same order of service can go on a TV or projector, or into your livestream. Between services the screen shows the QR code.
Yes. You can add a giving button, a mailing list sign-up and a feedback form, and choose when each appears.
Yes. Notes for the musicians, vergers or camera crew sit in the order of service at the point they're needed. Each team reads its own on a private link, and the congregation never sees them.
Anything already loaded stays on screen, and the page catches up when the connection comes back.
There is no sign-up form yet. Tony would like to talk to parishes and dioceses who want to use it, show you a service, and work out what fits.