LONDON (Reuters) – British telecoms operator BT Group Plc has wired up a church in Wales to allow the congregation to hook onto local high-speed Internet connections when they want a break from the sermon. Britain’s largest fixed-line telecoms operator said on Tuesday it had installed a Wi-Fi wireless network access point, known as a hotspot, in Reverend Keith Kimber’s St John’s Rectory church in the city of Cardiff.
"The church has to move with the times and I wanted to make St John’s a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles," Kimber said in a statement issued by BT. "I have no problem with people quietly sending an email or surfing the Internet in church, as long as they respect the church."
Wi-Fi — a medium-range wireless network that is often rolled out in coffee shops and airport lounges — allows users of laptop computers and other gadgets to access fast Internet connections without having to struggle with wires and mismatched phone plugs. [Source][Via Musings of an Expagan]
Personally I go to church to help to avoid a hotspot, in fact a really really hotspot if you know what I mean. In fact the WWW that I am interested in at Mass is Worship, Worship, Worship.
In some ways I have thought about the internet in relation to the Mystical Body of the Church. We can see the saints in the role as routers that amplify and pass on our prayers. We can ping a saint for a special request. Everywhere we go we can log on via an IP address (Intercessory Prayer) and be confident that our prayers never bounce or get returned as undeliverable. Though maybe it would be cool to pray for someone in Purgatory and then have it bounce back with a forwarding address when they have moved on to the Beatific Vision. If only we realized how much grace that can be downloaded. The only problem with grace bandwidth is our own disposition which can serve as a bottleneck. In fact I find it quite annoying about myself that when receiving the Most Holy Eucharist that instead of opening up a Transubstantiation 1 (T1) line to Christ I am more like to get a bad dial-up connection especially if distractions are considered as loss of connection. Perseverance in prayer can be seen as continuing to try to log on despite connection problems.
One good thing is that God never spams us, though sometimes he sends things our way that we try to filter or delete like in the case of the rich young man in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. And the only thing he wants to enlarge is our life of faith.
I also wonder if lesser know saints have referral logs like Sitemeter where they can check to see how many intercessory hits they have had in the last hour. That they would rejoice in a spike of traffic since it means they get to help lend a hand in intercessory prayer. Though I also wonder if St. Anthony gets annoyed when the subject line again and again reads "Find something for me." I mean maybe he would like to pray for a special intention every now and again.
11 comments
That has to be the dumbest idea ever.
No wait, the dumbest idea ever was the clown mass.
This is the second dumbest idea ever.
The Curt Jester on The Internet and the Mystical
Ah, the Curt Jester!
To Mr. “Jester”:
Hmmm… it almost looks like you’ve been reading ahead in my discussion on prayer and high technology… But then your writing on it makes the point even stronger: there IS a relationship to be examined here! Some fruitful discussions lie ahead.
And I appreciate the comical parts of your posting, about which I give a Chestertonian chuckle!
Paradoxically, etc.
Wow! They must think of me as draconian – I made the ushers hide the bulletins until AFTER Mass. I cannot imagine what would possess one (even an Anglican one) to encourage (and facilitate) people to bring their own distractions with them. If indeed this is an Anglican Church, the in-church hotspot is brought to you by the same people who brought you adulterous gay bishops, abrogating Sunday as the Lord’s Day, Communion for pets (why NOT give to dogs what is Holy – although in their case, it really is Just a piece of bread). I can only shake my head and wonder: “why doesn’t anybody attend Anglican Churches which have rendered themselves so “relevant” ? – but I don’t have to wonder, I know the answer! Maybe the surfers at St. John’s will come upon the Curt Jester and be led to the Fullness of the Faith!
Huh, and here I’ve been telling my boys they cannot bring their Gameboys to Mass. Just what we need to hear during the consecration of the host… “You’ve got mail!”
World Wide Worship?
British telecoms operator BT Group Plc has wired up a church in Wales to allow the congregation to hook onto local high-speed Internet connections when they want a break from the sermon.
This is completely insane! Churches are supposed to be a sanct…
See, the wifi access works like this:
Suppose you accidentally find yourself at a clown mass at this church, but it’s too crowded for you to push your way out of the pews. Solution? Fire up your iBook and watch the Divine Liturgy re-broadcast from the Orthodox Church.
Tony – iBooks are sinful… didn’t you know all this sin stuff started with a single Apple?
Though maybe it would be cool to pray for someone in Purgatory
and then have it bounce back with a forwarding address when they have
moved on to the Beatific Vision.
No, that’d be a 301 Moved Permanently response. 😛
Egads~ It’s almost as if the Anglicans clergy are deliberately trying to pull as many people away from a relationship with Christ as they can. Why don’t they just come out and say, “We ADMIT that God isn’t worth your time, but we’d really like to keep our jobs”?
As for me, I’m reminded of Our Lord’s reaction to finding the Apostles asleep in the Garden of Gethsemene. Consciously ignoring Him? Ooooo, I hope you like Purgatory, brother.
I recall an elderly gentleman who calmly leaned over the pew to a parent and said, “If you don’t turn that contraption off that your child is playing with….I’ll turn it off for you”. It was a game boy hand held, and had no business being n church, let alone in the hands of a 10 year old. Parents are teaching their children nothing of value when they allow them to read non-religious books, and silly video games during mass.