When the pandemic hit, many churches were forced to offer their services online and to build a virtual presence.

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Fergus has managed to keep up with the everchanging COVID-19 rules.

Since September, St. Andrew’s Church has been offering two worship services, one on Thursday that gets filmed for YouTube, and another on Sunday, without the camera teams present.

Peter Bush, the minister at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, said at the moment they have 140 views a week of their YouTube service.

Uplifting words of encouragement are shown on the front of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Fergus, Ontario. Photo by Kayla Kreutzberg.

“I haven’t done this work, but other people have, and they estimate that a view is worth 1.8 people,” Bush said. “So, if you do 1.8 times our 140, we’re doing a bit better than we were before.”

Bush said he knows from comments and e-mails that they have viewers from Nova Scotia, through to Manitoba, and also in the United States.

He said that the church is fortunate enough to have an amazingly gifted tech team, in order to provide their worship services online. However, people still miss coming into the church.

“They miss being able to come to the church, they miss being able to sing with other people, they miss the fellowship that happens before and after just in terms of conversation, even the fact, you know, you have to greet each other at 6 ft of distance and sort of wave at each other, is very different than [what] would normally happen, you know, shake hands or even give a hug, and none of that is possible, and people miss all of those things,” Bush said.

He said that in addition to the worship services, the church is consistently sending out material, whether that’s devotion or encouragement material to people.

“It’s just a matter of keeping up contact of saying, that there is hope, encouraging hope, and I think one of the hearts of Christian faith is that there is hope, even if there’s challenge and difficulty this is not the ultimate reality, there is a deeper reality, and hope is an essential piece,” Bush said.

He said that for this year’s Christmas Eve service people will have to call ahead, so the church can manage everyone, as they are planning on having three worship services.

He added if Centre Wellington does go into a lockdown, the church will still have an online service for churchgoers.

Peter Bush, the minister at the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Fergus, Ontario: