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UK News

40,000 viewed Church of England services online since 2015

by Hannah Tooley

The project, called ChurchLive, will make its final broadcast on Sunday at The Point Church in Sussex, the site of its first broadcast in 2015.

It marks one year on after the scheme was launched by the Church of England in partnership with Twitter UK.

Since its creation it has streamed a variety of services including carols and a special Glastonbury Festival church event via the live streaming app Periscope.

On average each service has been viewed on around 750 screens, including mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

Viewers have tuned in from all over the world, including Israel, India, Nigeria, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Rev Arun Arora, Director of Communications for the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, said: "It has been a joy to offer the best of the breadth of services offered by the Church to tens of thousands of people over the past year.

"We have been delighted by the way churches have embraced the opportunities offered by social media to proclaim the Gospel afresh and to reach new audiences."

He told Premier's News Hour the idea has brought many more people to worship:"There's recognising that for a number of people going into a church building is a scary thing.

"Perhaps some people who've never been into a church building, perhaps some people have never been into a church building, perhaps some people come with prejudices or preconceptions, perhaps this can enable them to think 'actually this isn't scary, this is something I want to go to."

Listen to Premier's Hannah Tooley speak to Rev Arun Arora here:

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