Virtual Methodist

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain... I won't go any further, because, I'm not a big Sinatra fan at the best of times, and I particularly loathe, hate and detest that song, which is the perfect anthem to contemporary individualism... But having got that rant out of my system, this is just a short placeholder-post, given I am moving today and I'm not too sure whether the phone/internet will be up and running in my new gaff... So I may be offline for another day or two... I've been too preoccupied with boxes this week to post anything... The image of "final curtain" is an appropriate one however given my theatre background and the fact that when I started in Dundonald 9 years ago, I began by warning them that I was a "hypocrite", the Greek word for mask-wearer or actor... But I promised that I wouldn't be "playing a part" as their minister... that what they saw would be the real me, and for the most part I...

Maybe it's just my learning style, which is highly associative, picking up cross-cutting themes in a number of different disciplines, but recent reading in the blogosphere has been raising a lot of related issues regarding the over-all direction of modern worship and the use of technology in the same, and how that in turn shapes our corporate and personal spiritual lives... For starters, the whole issue of powerpoint... I am a convert if not a devotee... I use it in most services in my home church but do not feel disabled without it. I have however, both in worship and in other settings experienced the "death by powerpoint" phenomenon (142 slides in 90 minutes in a presentation on "The Review of Public Administration" by way of an after-dinner speech on one occasion). So these two salutory warnings regarding the inappropriate use of this technological tool in worship are very helpful (See Alan in Belfast and Scotteriology ). But, as Alan in Belfast points out it...