Blessed be the mobile.

Today a friend and former colleague Canon David Parrott has hit the headlines after conducting a service of blessing for mobile phones and laptops. The service took place at St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London and it is David’s updated version of the traditional Plough Monday blessing, when farmers would bring their ploughs to the church door to be blessed. David’s argument is that the tools of the trade for many City workers are the mobile phone and laptop PC so why shouldn’t we ask God’s blessing on these pieces of equipment and on those who use them.

I must admit I was quite surprised when David announced last year that he was leaving his role as a CME adviser in Chelmsford Diocese to become Vicar of St Lawrence Jewry in the City of London. A few of us scratched our heads to work out why he had taken this job but David’s simple response was to say that God had told him to. David has always shown great imagination in his ministry, is a gifted communicator and has a very dry sense of humour. The service of blessing for mobile phones combines these gifts and I look forward to seeing what other ideas he comes up with in the future.

The words of blessing used in the service included the following and are very appropriate for those of us who use these pieces of equipment:

May our tongues be gentle, our e-mails be simple and our websites be accessible…

By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen.

A couple of years ago I conducted a blessing of ploughs at one of our parish churches. The service was very appropriate given our rural location; the church is surrounded by farmland and several of the congregation are land owners, farm managers and workers. The one drawback with the position of the church is you can’t get a good mobile phone signal so perhaps I might borrow David’s order of service to see if we can improve the reception.