Online church

On the six Sundays from 11 April to 16 May services, produced by our Archdeacons, will be streamed in full each Sunday on our Diocesan YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/southwarkdiocese) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SouthwarkCofE) platforms and available to re-watch, so please feel free to direct members of your congregation to either of those places.

The Archdeacons will also make the elements of these services available to you to download and make use of in your own Online Worship Service, if that’s something that you’re in a position to offer. Find out more on our Liturgical Resources page.

Cyber-security

Some parishes have reported incidents of ‘Zoombombing’ (people hijacking video conferencing meetings in a disruptive way). The latest edition of Zoom (Zoom 5.0) was issued on 27 April 2020 containing security enhancements and additional meeting safeguards to help keep your meetings safe from Zoombombing (https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/zoom-v5-0.html). Please ensure that your Zoom account is updated to this latest version.

• Please note that all meetings are now required by Zoom to have a password. Only circulate the meeting password to trusted individuals and please don’t share it online – it’s the same as letting the public know where your spare front door keys are kept!
• To add additional security, we advise that you ask people to let you know in advance that they will be attending the meeting, and to tell you the screen name they will use.
• The Zoom waiting room should now be enabled automatically on all meetings. Check the screen names against your list, and only let in those people you are expecting.
• Screen sharing is now set, by default, to be an option only for the meeting host. We recommend that you keep it set this way to avoid any unwanted interruptions.

For additional security:

a) use password security on any parish live-streams you are planning, and make sure that the password is distributed in a different way from the stream link

b) check the host security settings of the broadcast, to make sure that only the host can allow screen sharing, and if necessary, muting.

Cyber-security resources

• Managing participants in a Zoom meeting: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115005759423
• Managing meeting settings in Microsoft Teams: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/meeting-settings-in-teams
• Managing group chats in Skype on desktop: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34800/how-do-i-manage-group-chats-in-skype-on-desktop