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Religious congregations across Lancashire have been adapting to a new way of worshipping after the coronavirus outbreak forced churches, synagogues, mosques and temples to close their doors.

The restrictions have seen various faiths turning to technology in an attempt to ensure that people can still witness the services that they would otherwise have been attending in person.

Catholics in Lancashire have been told that their parish priests will continue to celebrate Mass in the absence of a congregation – but some of them are also webcasting it for a wider audience.

“It’s been a Godsend,” said Fr. Graeme Dunne of the equipment he invested in last year to cater for the increasing number of housebound parishioners in his parish of St. Gregory's in Chorley.

Fr. Graeme Dunne celebrated Mass in an empty church - but still had a big congregation

With the church, on Weldbank, closed last weekend, there was a seven-fold increase in viewers of the webcast - 300 were registered on Saturday evening alone. While that enabled worshippers to take part in most aspects of the weekend Masses, the most striking for Fr. Dunne was that he was unable to hear their participation.

“There was nothing for me to focus on – I would usually look up and see people’s faces, but instead there was just a camera.

“Every time I said something which the congregation would respond to, there was silence. But because I wasn’t getting that response, it did cause me to slow down a little.

How Lancashire's religious communities worshipped via webcam because of coronavirus