Gathering Mode

Publisher: Global.Church · Created: 2026-04-16 · 3 concepts

https://ontology.global.church/core#GatheringModeScheme

Describes how an ekklesia convenes. Three modes: InPerson (shared venue), Online (digital gathering with mutual participation), and Distributed (multi-node, no single-venue dependency). Multi-valued — an ekklesia may carry more than one mode simultaneously.

Code	Label	Definition
`GTH-DST`	Distributed	The body persists across multiple sub-gatherings — cell groups, house meetings, campuses, or regional nodes — without a single-venue dependency. The ekklesia's identity is sustained through networked gathering rather than a single weekly assembly. Covers persecution-context networks (gathering in rotating homes), diaspora fellowships coordinating across time zones, and multi-site churches where each campus is not a distinct ekklesia but the body functions as one distributed church. Distributed differs from Online in that the primary concern is geographic/structural decentralization rather than the medium of connection. A persecution-context church network gathering in secret across a city is Distributed even if its members primarily meet in person when safe. Example: An underground house-church network across a closed-access city that gathers in rotating homes and coordinates by encrypted messaging — gc:GatheringDistributed (decentralized structure), distinct from gc:GatheringOnline, which marks the digital medium of a single assembly.
`GTH-INP`	In Person	Physically co-located in a shared venue. The ekklesia's primary or recurring gathering involves believers meeting in the same building, home, or outdoor location at the same time. The default gathering mode for traditional congregations and house churches.
`GTH-ONL`	Online	An ekklesia that itself convenes through digital means — believers gathering together, with mutual participation, in a shared digital space rather than a shared physical venue. The defining mark is mutual ecclesial participation (worship, teaching, mutual ministry, shared prayer, sacraments where the tradition admits them) rather than the medium of delivery. Includes Zoom-based house churches, VR church environments, and messaging-based diaspora fellowships where members interact with one another in real time or in mutual asynchronous rhythms. Watching a livestream alone — passive consumption of a service originating elsewhere — is not GatheringOnline; it is media reception, not gathering. A church that broadcasts an in-person service to scattered viewers does not, by virtue of the broadcast, carry GatheringOnline. Broadcast and streaming activity belong on different axes — the streamed artifact is a resource, the broadcasting work is an organizational activity or capability — not a Gathering Mode. GatheringOnline applies instead when the digital space is itself the assembly: members are mutually present to one another and recognize each other as part of the same gathering, and they participate in its ecclesial life rather than merely receiving a transmission. Mutual presence is an interactional test, not a visual or aural one — privacy-preserving and security-driven forms of presence are explicitly admitted. A persecution-context house church meeting on Signal with cameras off, voices modulated, pseudonymous handles, or text-only chat still carries GatheringOnline so long as members are participating with one another. Likewise: video-off-by-policy gatherings, voice-only or audio-only formats for accessibility, encrypted-text-only meetings for safety, anonymized handles to protect abuse survivors, and audio-obfuscation for at-risk participants are all legitimate forms of online gathering. The ontology takes no theological position on whether digital gathering constitutes complete ecclesial life — it describes practitioner identity. A community that self-identifies as a digital-first or digital-primary church and meets the mutual-participation test carries GatheringOnline.