A new experiment with a once forgotten opportunity on YouTube

How was I going to save and share memories from two years ago of 45 seconds on the Grand Canal in Venice? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

I have started in the last week or so to experiment with building up my own YouTube channel.

I had become quite adept in recent years in developing my use of other social media platforms, including my own blog, and my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest pages – and, sometimes, even managing to link them.

But YouTube seemed to keep avoiding my attention until recently.

I have had a YouTube account since 2011, and became aware of the potential of YouTube when David Moore interviewed me in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, early in 2015 for a series of five short three- to eight-minute films about my life, my ministry, my values and my family connections with Lichfield.

It is not that I had ignored YouTube since then – quite the opposite. Like many people, I have used it to listen to music, catch up on short documentaries, hear other people’s sermons, or watch the occasional movie.

I rediscovered YouTube during the recent pandemic lockdowns as a way to keep up my daily walking average as I paced around the rectory gardens, listening to music or talks and having my mind broadened.

In recent months, as the lockdown has returned in different stages and with varying intensities, I started to record my Sunday sermons and to post them on different platforms. Soon, I found the Facebook viewings of Sunday sermons could total 200, 300 or even more. It was a viewing audience I had never expected, and it surpassed all my expectations.

More people were watching and listening to my sermons on Facebook pages during the lockdown than were reading them on my blog, and countless more were watching and listening than would ever hear them in church on a Sunday morning.

For some time, I had also been posting short videos on Facebook with a theme of ‘30 seconds’ – 30 seconds on a beach, by a riverbank, or in the countryside, or the occasional video collection of photographs that had been put together by Google.

But there is a problem with Facebook videos and recordings. They are there for a few days … and then they are gone. Few people are going to scroll through their feed for a week or more to find the previous Sunday’s sermon or 30 seconds from the beach in Ballybunion or by the River Blackwater in Cappoquin. I know how to find them in my own Facebook files, but it is difficult for anyone else to … and, in any case, who is going to bother?

Longer videos seldom appear as an option for reposting as a memory on Facebook. In addition, recordings take up a lot of space on my phone. If I wanted to save them, and allow other people to find them, I wondered, how I could archive them?

I was then reminded of my own almost-forgotten and much-neglected YouTube channel that had been dormant since 2011.

I began with a sermon recorded for Nagasaki Day, 9 August 2020, recorded in Saint Mary’s Church, Askeaton, for the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel).

In all, I have recovered five sermons, mainly since October: 9 August 2020, 11 October 2020, 18 October 2020, 25 October 2020 and 1 November 2020.

But I have also recovered some video clips from my travels in Ireland and in Europe, such as 30 seconds by the Blackwater in Cappoquin, 35 seconds on the River Deel at sunset in Askeaton, 30 seconds of sunset in Rethymnon, 45 seconds on the Grand Canal in Venice, 30 seconds by the seafront in Thessaloniki, and a minute of Klezmer music in Kazimierz, the historic Jewish quarter in Krakow.

As I experimented with my newly-rediscovered YouTube channel, I also saved those five interviews in Lichfield with David Moore, and started experimenting with making my own themed video-clips with photographs taken over the years, including a collection of photographs from Saint John’s Hospital in Lichfield, a summer day in Tamworth, Comberford and Lichfield, Lichfield at night, Vicars Close in Lichfield, and a stroll around Comberford village, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire.

In addition, I have added a playlist of those five short films made by David Moore in association with the local history and environment groups, Lichfield Discovered and the Friends of Sandfields Pumping Station, and with the hospitality of Canon Andrew Gorham, then Master of Saint John’s Hospital, and the staff and residents of Saint John’s:

A Self Defining Moment, first published on 21 January 2015, when I talk to Dave Moore talk about my own self-defining moment, and the scenic route I took to ordination and priesthood;

Lichfield and the Comerfords, published on 21 January 2015, when I talk to Dave Moore about my connection with Lichfield and my links with the Comberford family;

The Vision, the third, published on 26 January 2015, and has been described by Dave Moore as a ‘very powerful and moving film,’ when I talk about my grandfather, Stephen Comerford, and the impact on him of World War I;

The Causes of War, published on 12 February 2015, in which I talk about the causes of war, and the impact of nationalism;

Humanity, the fifth and final film in the series, when I talk to David about those personal feelings that define my views of humanity, and how I answered the call to ordained ministry in the Anglican tradition.

The pandemic lockdown has also prevented me from visiting the school in Rathkeale, apart from meetings of the Board of Management. But now YouTube provides another fresh opportunity of making those links.

These are small beginnings. But this is an interesting experiment, and it is work in progress.

More people watch and listen to my sermons on Facebook and on YouTube than ae reading them on my blog or hearing them in church on a Sunday morning

Talking about history, memories, war and vision in the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield

Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, with the Master’s House and the chapel on the left … the location for five films made by Dave Moore (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)

Patrick Comerford

I spent a day working in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield, last month [16 January 2015] being interviewed for a series of films by the historian, photographer and filmmaker David Moore.

Dave studied public history at Ruskin College, Oxford, and we first met when I was leading a guided walking tour of the Cathedral Close, Lichfield, and lecturing on the history of the close at the invitation of the local history group, Lichfield Discovered.

He is passionate about public history, and the need to hear the voice of local people and their memories of history in their area. One definition says: “Public History is history that is seen, heard, read, and interpreted by a popular audience. Public historians expand on the methods of academic history by emphasising non-traditional evidence and presentation formats, reframing questions, and in the process creating a distinctive historical practice … Public history is also history that belongs to the public. By emphasising the public context of scholarship, public history trains historians to transform their research to reach audiences outside the academy.”

The Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital has played a crucial role in the development of my faith and in the beginning of my sense of a call to ordination to the priesthood.

Over the course of many hours in the chapel, Dave asked me about my values and beliefs and how they were first shaped in Lichfield, my memories of Lichfield, my family connections with the cathedral city, my life story from a defining moment in the chapel of Saint John’s, through a career in journalism that took me from the Lichfield Mercury to the Wexford People and The Irish Times, my call to ordination and the priesthood, and my views about war, peace and nationalism.

These five films were made in association with the local history and environment groups, Lichfield Discovered and the Friends of Sandfields Pumping Station, and with the hospitality of Canon Andrew Gorham, Master of Saint John’s Hospital, and the staff and residents of Saint John’s.

A Self Defining Moment



The first in this series of films is A Self Defining Moment, was published on 21 January 2015. In this film, I talk to David Moore talk about my own self-defining moment, and the scenic route I took to ordination and priesthood.

I first arrived in Lichfield in my teens, and began his career in journalism as a freelance contributor to the local newspaper, the Lichfield Mercury. I continue to be grateful for the encouragement and opportunities provided by the Lichfield Mercury and its then editor, Neil Beddows, in the early 1970s.

Lichfield and the Comerfords



The second film, Lichfield and the Comerfords, was published on 21 January 2015. In this film, I talk to Dave Moore about my connection with Lichfield and my links with the Comberford family.

I originally came to Lichfield following in the footsteps of my great-grandfather, James Comerford, about 70 years earlier. Like him, I was seeking the story of the origins of the Comberford family, which was intimately linked with Lichfield for many generations, spanning centuries of the history of the family.

The Vision



The Vision is the third in this series of films. It was published on 26 January 2015, and has been described by Dave Moore as a “very powerful and moving film.”

In this film, I talk about my grandfather, Stephen Comerford, and the impact that World War I had on him.

The Causes of War



The fourth in this series of films, The Causes of War, was published on 12 February 2015. In this episode, I talk about the causes of war, and the impact of nationalism.

Here Dave gives me an opportunity to develop some of the ideas I had spoken about in a short film made for Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, last year [2014] as part of the commemorations there marking the centenary of World War I.

Humanity



Humanity is the fifth and final film in the series. In this last episode, I talk to David about those personal feelings that define my views of humanity, and how I answered the call to ordained ministry in the Anglican tradition.

Dave and I worked for most of that day in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital before heading off to a late lunch in the centre of Lichfield. I am looking forward to returning to Lichfield and to Saint John’s later this year to preach at the Patronal Festival Eucharist on the Feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist [24 June 2015].

Updated: 14 March 2015 following the production of the fifth film in this series.