I found it particularly interesting that we were looking at this issue this year in the context of a virtual conference... which a couple of people actually said to me was the best for a number of years. Yet the question always remains whether technology such as that which we have been forced into using more over the past 15 months facilitates genuine connections being made or simply offers a facsimiles of engagement... allowing us to remain safely socially distanced - but not aways in a good way.
With those thoughts in mind I thought that it might be an appropriate time to reblog the following piece, that I wrote last September. In my former blog post I noted the less than subtle allusions to one of John Donne's most famous poems... But I omitted the cod-Latin hat-tip to E.M. Forster's epigraph from "Howards End" (and not my favourite quiz show)... I doubt that Forster would have approved of the internet as a means of connecting...
Connexion.
An archaic spelling.
An antiquated notion
Where the individual is all?
Each person their own prince.
Each congregation their own principality.
Reformed we proclaim to the glory of God alone,
Faith alone, grace alone, scripture alone and Christ alone,
But above all these we have added ourselves alone.
The hand does not really seem to care one jot
Whether the foot is part of their body.
For whom are the bells tolling?
For each one is an island
Slowly eroding.
Sola connexio.
Selah
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