The Calcutta diocese of the Church of North India will live-stream services during the Holy Week, starting Sunday.

“People are not able to visit churches.... It will mean families can get together and pray even though they are not in the church,” Reverend Paritosh Canning, the bishop of the Calcutta diocese of the Church of North India, said.

Apart from Calcutta, the Durgapur and Barrackpore dioceses of the CNI have been alerted, the bishop said.

The Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and ends on the subsequent Sunday, which is Easter.

The bishop will preside over the services, which will be live-streamed on YouTube from the Bishop’s House in Calcutta.

One has to search Diocese of Calcutta and click on the Diocesan logo. The services will be live-streamed on Palm Sunday (April 5) and Easter Sunday (April 12) at 10am; Maundy Thursday (April 9) at 5pm and Good Friday (April 10) at noon.

Services were not live-streamed before the lockdown because it was not needed but the current situation demands so, the bishop said. It will make “people feel they are together”, he said.

St Thomas’ Church on Free School Street have been uploading the services on its various WhatsApp groups. “We have asked the Bible readers to read their portion and videograph and send it to us. We record the service and upload it on WhatsApp for our members,” a priest of the church said.

Last week, bishop Canning had asked people to pray every evening at six for the “struggle we are facing because of the coronavirus”.

The archdiocese of Calcutta on Friday shared the schedule of the live stream of the Holy Mass and other services of the Holy Week. Archbishop Thomas D’Souza will preside over the services from the chapel in the archbishop’s house.

On Palm Sunday it will be from 8am, on Holy Thursday 6pm, on Good Friday 3pm, on Easter Vigil (April 11) 7pm and on Easter Sunday from 8am.