Today, my last Sunday Eucharist to the accompaniment of air cooling fans, at least for the time being. Again, despite my best efforts with the microphone, there were still complaints I couldn't be heard. This is the worst kind of frustration for a preacher. You start wondering if it's worth the effort you put into it, especially when the audibility of the lessons is also in doubt. In this climate listening to the Word requires willingness to endure a certain degree of discomfort to get fifteen minutes of quiet, but there's a certain nervousness about imposing this on visitors who may feel deterred by discomfort - well they may feel deterred equually if they can't hear.
Suddenly my memory erupts with the title of Berton & Harrison's book from my youthful days in ministry 'The Comfortable Pew'. How does any congregation today survive the visit of the 'Mystery Shopper' churchgoer, willing to sweat a little to hear what the Spirit says to the Churches, and is then disappointed by being unable to hear or make sense of what the church proclaims. There are limits to what a locum priest can insist on when others, better versed in local affairs than he, are entrusted with holding things together.
One thing a locum can do, apart from celebrate the sacraments, is to offer interpretation of scripture in the liturgy of the day. If for any reason a congregation over which I had pastoral charge (which as a 'hired hand' I don't), couldn't hear properly, and there was no other opportunity to improve audibility, I'd make time to print off the Sunday readings and a summary of my address and key intercession points to give to people to read and take away. More expensive textual consumerism, the cynic might say. Agreed. The liturgical norm is now the takeway leaflet! It's not a perfect solution but one that respects the purpose of the gathering.
I was happier with the Alternative Service Book of 1980 despite its limitations, because it was faithful to the strategic design concept of a single Book of Common Prayer complementing the Bible from 1549 onwards. I've been an experimenter and innovator in liturgical praxis for the past half century, but I still wish we could recognise and stay faithful to the gift renaissance and reformation worship practitioners gave us. Just because we have all the core texts and variations accessible on line, and can replace the book with the tablet for reading scripture or prayers, doesn't detract from the central idea of having a text in your hand that doesn't need a web connection or a re-charging.
Recently IKEA, God bless them, promoted their annual product catalogue with a satire of an iPad advertisment. All it needs now is for some smart seminarian to come up with a promotional ad. for Common Worship - the book - as a radically innovative an alternative to Visual Liturgy on-line.
Honestly I don't hate digital media or on line liturgical archives. I use them like any other slave to time saving corner cutting. The truth is, I think the quality of my prayer life is suffering from months of using the CofE Daily Office and/or iBreviary online, and not having the much more sensual experience of a book I've carried about for decades in my hand.
There are no fingerprints to wipe from the surface of a book as there are from a screen. A book ages with touch, and absorbs memories of many forgotten moments in its blemishes and annotations. It's far more alive, and I'm much more connected with it physically than with a user interface I can read easily on most devices, even in the dark, so long as there's power, so long as there's bandwidth.
Such strange bewildering times we live in.
After the morning's service, I was taken to La Herradura beach for long lunch at the Chambao de Vicente restaurant. It was a lovely relaxed experience with lots of interesting conversation, ending with tea in the house of my hosts and a return to Church House with the setting sun in our faces.
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