Semi-Virtual Sacrament Meeting

For weeks, we have held a short family sacrament meeting in our living room each Sunday, then headed to the family room to watch our ward's Sunday Zoom.  The Zoom presentations have included everything from talks to a Sunday school lesson to a musical presentation.  You never knew what you were going to get, but it was always uplifting.

Today was different, in a very good way.  Phillip brought our sacrament bread and water to the family room so we could join our ward for a semi-virtual sacrament meeting.  For the first time since everything shut down in March, part of our ward gathered in a highly-sanitized, socially-distanced chapel to listen to talks, hear (but not sing) hymns, and partake of the sacrament together.

Attendance was capped at 25, so the rest of us tuned in via Zoom.  The audio and video was turned off during the sacrament, so Phillip took that time at our home to bless and pass the sacrament to our family.

I wondered if all of these restrictions and the fact that we weren't physically present would make this gathering a pale shadow of what sacrament meeting used to be.  Instead, it was one of the most inspiring sacrament meetings I've ever participated in.