Pausing during passing the sacrament

Our ward is using Zoom for Sacrament meetings. During the passing of the Sacrament I mute the audio, I'm wondering if I should also stop the video as well?

richwipf wrote: Sun Mar 23, 2025 11:56 am Our ward is using Zoom for Sacrament meetings. During the passing of the Sacrament I mute the audio, I'm wondering if I should also stop the video as well?

There are probably references to current policy in earlier postings on the topic of webcasting sacrament meeting, but search is not working for me at the moment. If I remember correctly, it is just stated that ordinances should not be streamed. (If someone has more precise wording, please feel free to add.) My ward has always stopped the video as well--except for a time or two when I was pinch-hitting and wasn't paying attention and forgot to do so. The previous ward clerk had set up and stored a slide that said "Sacrament in progress" when the video was stopped.

Before my ward got a new camera attached to the building, the USB webcam we were using would often fail to come back online after the video had been stopped for the sacrament. Rather than fight whatever driver or operating system bugs might be involved, the person who usually runs the webcast would simply flip down the physical cover over the camera lens (and shut odd the audio feed from the PA system).

Besides muting the sound on Zoom you should also suspend the video during the sacrament

We mute the sound and put up this slide, which is available for anyone to use directly, or download the JPG and use it locally.

https://grovesnet.org/pics/bread-and-water.jpg

richwipf wrote: Sun Mar 23, 2025 11:56 am Our ward is using Zoom for Sacrament meetings. During the passing of the Sacrament I mute the audio, I'm wondering if I should also stop the video as well?

GHB 38.2.3 states that the livestream of the sacrament meeting "should be paused during the administration of the sacrament". So simply muting is not sufficient, if the video still shows the sacrament being passed to those seated on the stand or in the congregation. Any approach that both covers the audio and visual aspects of the sacrament ordinance, should be sufficient.

If you are using a wall mounted PTZ camera you can fabricate a bracket to hold a picture or sign that says "Meeting will begin/resume shortly...". You can also wire up a magnetically triggered switch to disconnect(mute) the audio when the camera is rotated to the sign. Finally, setting up the camera "PRESET 0" to point at the sign allows you to easily "CALL" preset 0 to point at the sign and mute the audio during the sacrament ordinance AND during prelude and postlude times.

That's clever!