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With great joy we reflect on 3 years of ministry online and how God has blessed us by calling us into this space.

Established as a missional community in 2020, Holy Hermits online has grown into a space of innovation and great potential for the future of Church ministry.

Not only have we formed a group of regular members who serve and faithfully attend at weekly worship, but we have a flourishing study group who meet throughout the year regardless of the season to grow in discipleship together.

We've named our heart for outreach and making Church accessible for those who are unlikely to thrive in physical Church settings.

We have created a ministry for Spiritual direction and online retreats and are engaged in pastoral care and regularly supporting one another.

We found home base at the Cathedral and are deeply enriched through the togetherness we celebrate in that space, seeking to mutually build up online and in person offerings between our communities. 

We have built our own app with the help of our ministry partners Tithe.ly as well as the resource of our website where we pool the gifts of many online faith tools and make recommendations for one another in faith formation.

There are many opportunities for our members to share their ministry gifts in our community and have created many behind the scenes type roles to aid the bringing of all gifts and talents.

Our worship is primarily lay-led (clergy offer the ordained parts, but the lay people take the reigns) and our liturgies are taking more defined shape with the freedom of digital resourcing.

Our Companion Animal Ministry is going from strength to strength and we have committed to focusing on this in the time ahead as a primary thread of our tapestry of service.

Our Holy Hermit remembrance ministry has built up a database of information on the holy people we learn from through the year and we have already learned so much from the Hermits for how to live in solitude and community.

We have discerned a partnership with The Episcopal Diocese of Texas and are furthering online mission by offering our learnings from our space to those who wish to join us in the digitial ministry scape.

Alongside the use of technology and playful exploration of what the space can offer to us as we join together online, we have developed strong safeguarding practices to keep one another safe in our community. 

We have enjoyed sharing ministry with clergy from around the Anglican Diocese of Southern Queensland as well as from other parts of  the world. We have had guest preachers and teachers visit worship and study regularly, diversifying our teaching, and aiding our outreach by becoming known to them and their people.

Our partners Anglican focus continue to make us known to the wider Church, and offer invitation through articles and interest pieces, often written by our members.

Although a long way off being sustainable through our offertory givings, we are maintaining a regular budget with the help of our partners and are looking for more fundraising opportunities in the future to ensure our longevity in the online missionary field.

The Holy Spirit moves us in our Open Spaces to explore all sorts of new and exciting initiatives, as well as prompting us to revise, and sometimes release, some of our ministry activies. 

We have built a structure of support for leaders, servers and members to encourage and build one another up in our fellowship space at worship.

We've learned to mourn together when some of our members have gone to glory ahead of us and continue to offer solace in bereavement ministry.

We have an active prayer group, making use of our app prayer wall, as well as gathering spontaniously for prayer vigil services.

And with all this going on our contemplative services continue to be a space of stillness and meditative prayer once a month, with the faithful ministry-task group gathering the liturgies together.

It is a lot of work. At times it seems like we are re-inventing the wheel when we are experimenting and trying new things. We might even find ourselves doing things we never thought possible, or never even thought of, before allowing God to have our full attention in creating virtual community spaces.

Many Churches still don't know about us, and some might not want to know what we are doing 'in the ether' of the digital space. But we have been so blessed by all those who have joined us, joined in with us, supported and encouraged us, gave us space and time and resources and most of all prayed for us.

We give thanks for our members, community contacts, ministry partners, advocates, allies and those who have been with us during this past 3 years online. Thank you for being part of our story. 

May we continue to make disciples of all nations, taking Jesus love to the digital nation, using the vehicle of technology.

May God bless us and keep us,

Jamee