simonawright wrote:I haven't noticed a fall in attendance since the session has been available online.
Up until now, you couldn't watch nor listen "live" at home. And it's only been recently that the audio and video have been available online (a few hours after the meeting, but the timing of availability was never consistent). Also, the availability of the audio/video files was not widely advertised. So I'm not surprised that attendance at the Sunday rebroadcast hasn't changed.
But now things will be different. It's a bit awkward that they announced the live broadcast and then waited a day or two to clarify that they still want people to go to the local church. It seems like that should have all been announced at the same time. Makes me wonder what kind of feedback was immediately received at CHQ (and from whom?) to warrant the clarification.
This reminds me a bit of when the church made books and manuals available in electronic form but you still had priesthood leaders trying to ban electronic devices from church buildings and/or giving talks about how much better it is to use paper books than electronic versions. For me, the electronic version has always been superior and it's too late to convince me otherwise. In the same sense, I'm sure I will enjoy watching the priesthood session at home. I don't consider it some kind of bonding experience to sit in an uncomfortable, darkened cultural hall watching a bad projector with bad audio, struggling to see over the heads of other men and singing "rest hymns" out of synch, followed by a mad rush to leave as soon as possible when it's over (including those near-misses in the dark parking lot). Just my two pennies.
