Setting Up Virtual Worship

Many Quaker meetings now offer virtual worship alongside or instead of in-person gathering. Whether your meeting is exploring online worship for the first time, supporting Friends who cannot attend in person, or maintaining a hybrid approach, this guide covers the practical essentials.

Before You Begin

Virtual worship isn’t simply pointing a camera at a meetinghouse. It works best when someone takes responsibility for the technical aspects so that other Friends can focus on worship. Before your first session, consider:

• Who will host? Designate one or two Friends to manage the technology. This person doesn’t need to be an expert—just willing to learn and arrive a few minutes early.
• What equipment do you have? A laptop with a built-in camera and microphone is sufficient to start. Better audio equipment can come later.
• How will you communicate? Friends need to know how to join. Email your meeting list with clear instructions before the first session.

Choosing a Platform

Most unprogrammed meetings use Zoom for virtual worship. It has become the de facto standard for several reasons:

• Stable performance with multiple participants
• “Gallery view” lets everyone see each other, supporting the sense of gathered meeting
• Phone dial-in option for Friends without internet access
• Host controls useful for managing the meeting (muting, waiting rooms)
• Most Friends have encountered Zoom elsewhere and find it familiar

Other options include Google Meet (simpler, no software installation required), Jitsi (free and open-source), and Microsoft Teams (common in workplaces). Any platform that allows video calls with multiple participants can work.

Start simple

If your meeting is new to virtual worship, Zoom’s free tier allows meetings up to 40 minutes with unlimited participants. This is enough to test whether online worship serves your community before committing to a paid account.

Basic Setup

Creating the Meeting

1. Create a recurring meeting rather than generating a new link each week. This gives Friends a consistent link they can bookmark.
2. Enable a waiting room so the host can admit participants. This prevents disruptions and lets you greet Friends as they arrive.
3. Set participants to mute on entry to avoid background noise interrupting worship.
4. Disable the “join before host” option initially, so worship doesn’t begin before someone is ready to facilitate.

Room Settings for Worship

Before worship begins, the host should:

• Switch to Gallery View so all participants can see each other
• Mute all participants and ask Friends to remain muted unless giving vocal ministry
• Consider hiding non-video participants if your meeting prefers everyone visible (though this excludes phone participants from view)
• Disable screen sharing for participants to prevent accidental disruptions

During Worship

Opening the Meeting

The host or a designated elder might:

• Welcome Friends briefly as they arrive in the waiting room
• Admit everyone a few minutes before worship begins
• Offer a short spoken welcome and any necessary technical reminders (“Please stay muted unless you feel led to speak”)
• Allow worship to settle into silence

Holding Silence

Virtual silence feels different from gathered silence in a meetinghouse. Some meetings find it helpful to:

• Ask Friends to keep cameras on when possible, so the community remains visible to one another
• Accept that small sounds and movements are normal—perfect silence isn’t required
• Trust that the Spirit moves through screens as through walls

Vocal Ministry

When a Friend feels led to speak:

1. They unmute themselves (or raise a hand if your meeting uses that feature, and the host unmutes them)
2. They share their message
3. They mute again when finished

Some meetings ask Friends to pause briefly before unmuting to ensure the leading is clear. The slight awkwardness of unmuting can itself serve as a moment of discernment.

Closing Worship

The host or elder closes worship in your meeting’s usual manner—often with a spoken word, the shaking of hands (described verbally online), or an invitation to share joys and concerns.

After Worship

Many meetings value the social time after worship. Online, this requires intention:

• Breakout rooms can create smaller conversations, mimicking natural clustering after in-person worship
• Some meetings stay in the main room for announcements and informal chat
• Others end the formal meeting and invite Friends to an optional social call

The challenge of hybrid socializing

If your meeting offers both in-person and virtual worship simultaneously, after-worship socializing is particularly difficult. Friends in the room naturally talk to each other while online participants watch. Consider designating someone to facilitate inclusion, or hold separate social times for each group.

Common Challenges

”I can’t hear anyone” or “No one can hear me”

Audio problems are the most common technical issue. Troubleshooting steps:

1. Check that the correct microphone and speaker are selected in Zoom’s audio settings
2. Make sure the computer’s volume is turned up
3. Try leaving and rejoining the meeting
4. As a last resort, dial in by phone while staying on video

Background Noise

If a participant’s microphone picks up noise (barking dogs, traffic, keyboard typing), the host can mute them. Most Friends understand this isn’t personal.

Poor Video Quality

Video freezing or pixelation usually indicates a slow internet connection. Turning off video improves audio quality, which matters more for worship than seeing faces.

”Zoom Fatigue”

Some Friends find extended video calls draining. An hour of worship may feel longer online than in person. Your meeting might:

• Keep virtual worship slightly shorter than in-person worship
• Normalize turning cameras off during worship (while perhaps keeping them on during social time)
• Acknowledge that online worship supplements rather than replaces gathered meeting

Accessibility Considerations

Virtual worship can increase accessibility for some Friends while creating barriers for others:

Benefits:

• Friends with mobility challenges, chronic illness, or transportation difficulties can participate
• Parents with young children may find it easier to attend
• Friends who have moved away can remain connected to their meeting

Barriers:

• Friends without reliable internet access or devices are excluded
• Some older Friends find the technology intimidating
• Hearing-impaired Friends may struggle without captions

Consider offering phone dial-in for Friends without internet, and explore Zoom’s live captioning feature for those who benefit from text.

Equipment Upgrades (When You’re Ready)

A laptop’s built-in camera and microphone work for basic virtual worship. When your meeting is ready to invest in better equipment:

• External microphone: Improves audio quality significantly. A USB microphone like the Blue Yeti or Audio-Technica ATR2100 costs $50–$150.
• External webcam: Provides better video than most laptop cameras. The Logitech C920 or C922 are popular choices around $70–$100.
• Ring light or desk lamp: Improves lighting on your face, making video clearer.

For hybrid worship (simultaneous in-person and online), equipment needs are greater. Some meetings use devices like the Meeting Owl (approximately $1,000) which provides 360° video and audio capture for a room. This is a significant investment and not necessary for purely virtual worship.

Resources

• Woodbrooke’s Guide to Online Worship — comprehensive 40+ page guide covering Zoom setup, facilitation, and theological reflection
• FGC’s Virtual Worship Resources — reflections and resources on Quaker spirituality in virtual spaces
• Zoom’s Help Center — official documentation for platform features

---

This guide covers the basics. If your meeting has specific questions or has developed practices that work well, consider contributing to quaker.cloud so other meetings can benefit.