By March 15, 2020, Governor Inslee of the State of Washington had mandated that social distancing was required, and that schools would be closed. Large public events – cultural, sports, religion – had to be cancelled. As the coronavirus progressed, the orders evolved to “stay home, stay healthy.”
St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, like all other churches, closed its doors, but since the Sunday Morning Service had been successfully live-streamed for quite some time, it continued with only a small group using social distancing.
Likewise, The Compline Choir continued singing the Compline Service on Sundays from 9:30 to 10:00 pm (Pacific Time), in an empty cathedral, with a small subset of the choir. Members over sixty years of age, or who had other conditions that would render them susceptible to COVID-19, were not allowed to sing. The service continued to be broadcast live over the public classical music station KING-FM 98.1 and over king.org (which has carried the service since 1962), And the Compline Choir records the service, which is available as a podcast. But for the first time, the Compline Service was carried by the St. Mark’s Cathedral live video feed. At the conclusion of the service, the video archive or the podcast at complinepodcast.org would be available.
Since I was in the “over 60” group, I started enhanced posts to the Compline Underground blog containing the texts of the music sung, as well as many parts of the service. After each service is over, the live links will give way to links to the archive and the podcast.
You can always access the latest post at http://complineunderground.wordpress.com