“Whose Bodies? What Technologies? Cocreating Access as Christian Worship”
The COVID-19 pandemic gave urgency to the use of technologies in worship and transformed practices of worship in some Christian communities, providing access for many and creating barriers to access for others. How can Christian communities navigate these technological possibilities faithfully? This lecture makes the case that an answer must begin, not end, with access. This requires articulating both a theology of access and a theology of worship that centers access as vital for worshipping communities who take seriously God’s desire for Christians to worship God together. With this foundation, it becomes possible to investigate how technology in worship facilitates understanding and attending to human bodies and communities. But it also asks us to think expansively about what constitutes technologies of access and what conditions make worshipping together possible.