How UK Students can Stream Easter Sunday Church Sermons

Sunday April 12, 2020 is Easter Sunday: a day in the Christian faith celebrating Christ’s resurrection. Easter Sunday is one of the biggest celebrations in Christianity, and Christians gather together to celebrate in special church services.

This year however, it isn’t possible to psychically attend church services, as the coronavirus pandemic has closed the doors of churches around the world. Instead, churches are offering the next best thing – online streams of their sermons.

Here’s what will be streaming and how to access them…

Church of England

Canterbury Cathedral, UK

Alongside weekly streaming of their sermons, the Church of England also offers advice on practical activities to do at home, daily ‘LiveLent’ podcasts throughout Lent, and prayer for the day recordings, which can all be found on the Church of England’s website.

Here are the sermons and prayers available to stream on Easter Sunday:

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter Sunday service stream 

On Easter Sunday morning, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby will lead a service from the crypt chapel of Lambeth Palace. He will be joined by the Bishop of Dover, the Rt. Rev. Rose Hudson Wilkin.

The service will include a sermon, hymns and prayers and the archbishop will be sharing stories of how churches are helping with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those looking to stream the service can acess it it at 8.10am from the Church of England’s website and their Facebook page. The service will also be broadcast across 39 local BBC radio stations. 

The Archbishop of York’s prayers stream

The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev. Dr John Sentamu will be hosting a live stream leading a ten-minute-long collection of prayers. You will be able to stream these prayers directly from his Facebook account at 10am, 12pm, 4pm and 6pm.

The Catholic Church

St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City

Many priests and bishops are streaming mass from their churches and private chapels so that people can virtually attend Mass. 

Pope Frances’ Easter Sunday Mass 

Pope Frances will hold Easter Sunday Mass at 11am at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica. At the end of Mass, the Pope will remove his vestments in the Sacristy and then return to the Altar of the Confession, where he will deliver his Urbi et orbi message and Easter blessing.

You can view this either on the Catholic church’s website or on the Vatican’s live steam on YouTube here.

Stream Mass in local churches

You can also stream Mass in local churches using Churchservices.tv; a platform that provides churches with an online space to broadcast Mass, Adoration and Prayer. You can find a list of churches that use the service here.