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| The IPod, The Mobile Phone and the Parish |
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At the 40th Anniversary of Loyola of Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies, Vince Miller used the above title for his talk. It struck a chord and began a reflection process in us that has lasted many months. How can the parish compete with these modern devices that remove people from their surroundings and what is going on around them? The IPod, for instance, is a small machine that copies innumerable songs, concerts and presentations that the person can listen to at anytime or anyplace in the future. What is significant is that someone can pick and choose the type of music or audio program the person wants to listen to, and it can be done in any order. This removes the individual from the immediate surroundings and creates a separate world of one's own making. The mobile phone has a similar effect, only in this case, it is a live person on the other end of the line. The individual on the cell phone can be standing in a room full of people but one's whole attention is focused on someone in another part of the city, country or world. There is no need to pay attention to anything going on in the immediate vicinity. The person is, by all accounts, in another world. This may be hard on other people in the same room, but to the person talking on the cell phone, it makes no difference. Challenges For The Parish: The first step is to acknowledge this new reality in our midst. Make friends with it because it isn't going away. You can ask, cajole and beg people to turn off their cell phones during Mass or for a meeting, but there will always be a ringing sound breaking forth from someone's pocket or purse during the gathering. Get used to it, these are now extensions of people's very beings, something that connects them to a world well beyond the present location. More and more, citizens of this modern world live in many places and with many communities at once. The parish is the place where one's body may be residing at the moment, but one's mind is wandering around the world. The challenge is how to capture people's attention and have them focus on what is happening before them. Saying they "should pay attention" will not do it. Live with the world of the cell phone and discover its spiritual implications and possibilities. For example, consider a homilist who asks everyone to pull out their mobile phones (or act like they have a virtual one in their hand if they don't have one) during a homily and have people dial the phone number of someone dear to them, whether living or dead. Ask people to look at the number and think of the person and how they feel about the loved one or what they would want to say to them. The preacher then links this to the God in our midst who is trying to connect with us and speak to us because God is in love with us. In other words, accept this new reality of cell phones and make it an integral part of parish life, not something apart from it. Picking and Choosing: As for the IPod, this is the devise in which people can choose what they will listen to and when. Use it in the parish rather than ignore its existence. Provide many different choices for parishioners, even ones they could put on their IPods. Imagine an adult enrichment series that would not require any attendance in the parish, only a computer connection to download an entire Lenten or Advent meditation series, whole chapters from a spiritual book or a collection of homilies that people could listen to during commutes, house chores, shopping or relaxing after work. The English Jesuits have developed a website called "Pray-as-you-go: Daily Prayer for Your MP3 Player." Use it as a model of what could happen in your parish. It's a new world out there; make it part of the parish world as well. Tom Sweetser, SJ & Peg Bishop, OSF This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (www.pepparish.org) Parish Newsletter - July 2006 A Service of the Parish Evaluation Project Milwaukee, Wisconsin Reproduced on the OPRFM website with permission |
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