The other day a personal crisis of epic proportions came my
way!
Whilst driving, en route to a dog walk, it suddenly dawned on me that my mobile phone was missing from my right hand side trouser pocket. A wave of panic and anxiety filled me, all be it momentarily!
I had left it on the breakfast table. Later that day I would be attending an organ recital at Southwark Cathedral. We had got talking over the toast about the history of the place and, as is our custom these days, pulled out the phone to ‘google’ (is that really a verb as well as a noun?!) some information about its antiquity.
Well, despite my irrational fears (because I have existed on this planet perfectly well for half a century before buying my first mobile) I survived the dog walk without a phone and arrived home in one piece.
Just to prove the point, Google tells me the first cell phones came about in the USA in 1973, six years later in 1979 they were used in a car phone network in Japan. The first portable cell phone, resembling a brick, came on the scene in 1983 and whilst these became popular in America and on the Continent it wasn’t until 1992 that they were introduced to the UK.
It’s hard to believe now that the general public were at first mystified as to why they needed a mobile phone. Sales were sluggish! 1992 saw the first text message on 3rd December, it simply said ‘Merry Christmas’.
Whilst driving, en route to a dog walk, it suddenly dawned on me that my mobile phone was missing from my right hand side trouser pocket. A wave of panic and anxiety filled me, all be it momentarily!
I had left it on the breakfast table. Later that day I would be attending an organ recital at Southwark Cathedral. We had got talking over the toast about the history of the place and, as is our custom these days, pulled out the phone to ‘google’ (is that really a verb as well as a noun?!) some information about its antiquity.
Well, despite my irrational fears (because I have existed on this planet perfectly well for half a century before buying my first mobile) I survived the dog walk without a phone and arrived home in one piece.
Just to prove the point, Google tells me the first cell phones came about in the USA in 1973, six years later in 1979 they were used in a car phone network in Japan. The first portable cell phone, resembling a brick, came on the scene in 1983 and whilst these became popular in America and on the Continent it wasn’t until 1992 that they were introduced to the UK.
It’s hard to believe now that the general public were at first mystified as to why they needed a mobile phone. Sales were sluggish! 1992 saw the first text message on 3rd December, it simply said ‘Merry Christmas’.
We got used to mobiles throughout the 90’s and in 2007 the
iphone was launched, and the rest they say is history!
I suspect it’s all about that insatiable and intriguing
human need for connectivity and although some of us need it more than others it
does seem to be a universal desire.
Family and friends who are younger than me have a virtual world of connections that runs into hundreds of people; Facebook and WhatsApp to name just two platforms a dinosaur like me is aware of.
A minister friend of mine is working on a doctoral thesis examining the impact of this idea of ‘virtual community’ upon the Church.
In terms of faith ‘connectivity’ is a big issue. This weekend congregations around the world will be celebrating Trinity Sunday, a time when we ponder the community of The Godhead and the connectivity between Father, Son and Spirit.
I sense, in my own pilgrimage, that much of my search for meaning and purpose rests on the idea that I am, in some way, ‘connected’ to both God and other people. That gives me a sense of identity and hope. It is the essence of prayer.
Whether walking in the countryside or bowing my head in church I think of prayer as the process of making ‘connections’ and sensing my place in the network of life.
Fortunately I can still pray whether or not I’ve remembered to pick up the phone from the kitchen table and that sense of the blessing of God and others in my life is not, ultimately, dependent on the availability of a 5G network.
Family and friends who are younger than me have a virtual world of connections that runs into hundreds of people; Facebook and WhatsApp to name just two platforms a dinosaur like me is aware of.
A minister friend of mine is working on a doctoral thesis examining the impact of this idea of ‘virtual community’ upon the Church.
In terms of faith ‘connectivity’ is a big issue. This weekend congregations around the world will be celebrating Trinity Sunday, a time when we ponder the community of The Godhead and the connectivity between Father, Son and Spirit.
I sense, in my own pilgrimage, that much of my search for meaning and purpose rests on the idea that I am, in some way, ‘connected’ to both God and other people. That gives me a sense of identity and hope. It is the essence of prayer.
Whether walking in the countryside or bowing my head in church I think of prayer as the process of making ‘connections’ and sensing my place in the network of life.
Fortunately I can still pray whether or not I’ve remembered to pick up the phone from the kitchen table and that sense of the blessing of God and others in my life is not, ultimately, dependent on the availability of a 5G network.
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