British Pastor gives blessing to electronic devices
email addicts and workaholics who can not be disconnected from their digital mailbox now have God on their side, at least in the English capital.
The priest Canon David Parrott, the church of San Lorenzo in the Jewish Quarter, blessed on Monday a stack of laptops and smartphones on the altar of the century temple in an attempt to remind the busy London office grace of God, he said, can reach in many ways.
Parrott said he was looking to update the traditional ceremony back at work known as "Plow Monday", which the villagers used to gather to bless a tool for agricultural work on the temple door. That ceremony
no longer has much relevance for San Lorenzo, Parrott said, because the church "is not close to any field in the middle of London."
"This is the technology that is our daily work tool and is a technology that we bless," said Parrott.
San Lorenzo in the Jewish Quarter, so named because it is in the old Jewish quarter, is the official church of the Corporation City of London, which manages London's busy financial district.
At the end of Monday's service, the faithful took out their phones _algunos the stood on their cabezas_ while the priest blessed them and their electronics.
Parrott said he hoped the ceremony would serve to make religious services "alive and relevant to people working nearby, in the financial district."
The priest said that the faithful could leave their phones turned on during the service, provided they were in silent mode.
