Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Cliff Reed
Bubbles in the river we may seem to some –
transient, insubstantial, empty;
but we are here to effervesce with loving worship,
to reflect the divine rainbow in our fragile souls,
to treasure within us, for a moment, the breath of life.
Yes, it matters that we are here – virtually, together.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). (words by Laura Dobson)
As Unitarians we are people seeking
Truth, meaning, love and deep connection.
As we seek to discern our path
May we follow the guidance of our hearts
May our hearts be open to unexpected truths
May our chalice flame remind us
To welcome all the truth of our lives
To welcome each other
Into the beloved community
of love and compassion.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which the clouds
of war, poverty, and climate change hover.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
Help us to be grateful for the freedoms we have
and to respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
victims of violence and war,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading In Praise of Technology and Social Media by Wren Bellavance-Grace
In praise of computers and routers and servers and all the hardware and software that can help us build our connectedness;
in praise of all the gremlins that live in the machines and bug our programs and help us to practice patience;
in praise of the trolls who dwell in the internet and push us to live out our first principle in real time;
in praise of power surges that eat our data and devour our final draft, for giving us the opportunity to rebuild and remember that our work is as much transient as it is transcendent;
in praise of the Error: Page Not Found, which reminds us that with some people we need to find new paths to make connections, because not everyone uses the same keywords;
in praise of servers that drop our connections which reminds us that all who serve have built-in limits to their capacity;
in praise of communication and connection, whether it is face-to-face or facebook-to-facebook,
We always risk errors, hurt feelings and misunderstanding,
But it is also, always, worth the risk.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
may we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
and may our shortcomings be forgiven,
as we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
the inspiration and guidance to do right,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
and receive whatever life brings,
with courage and trust.
Amen
Reading Language by Phil Silk, from With Heart and Mind
This reading is actually a prayer, but I think it does just as well as a reading…
Let us rejoice in the history of human communication.
We are grateful for all the individuals who have shared their experiences and interpretations of life with us.
Let us also appreciate the efforts of those who continue to help us understand the multitude of tongues they use and have used.
Let us recognise the importance of being careful communicators ourselves,
Careful to think and feel clearly what we want to say,
Careful to convey messages in ways appropriate to the intended audience,
Careful to be honest but not hurtful,
Wise enough to know when to be silent and when to speak.
Let us learn to be good listeners: attentive, sensitive, patient, responsive.
There are many ways to explore life and to share the results.
May we be alive to the possibilities, recognising how connected we are
To all human beings, dead, alive and to be born.
May we also appreciate how connected we are to the rest of the universe, living or not.
Language is the medium, and the message. Long live language.
Prayer by Cliff Reed (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
In the quietness of this place and the peace of this hour,
may we come close to our deeper selves.
Fantasies and daydreams too often cloud our minds,
and we use our time and energy pursuing empty goals.
In busy-ness we lose our way.
Let us listen to the deep insistent call within us.
May we learn to love our poor fragmented selves
that they may be healed.
And may we turn that love outwards,
that it might heal the wounds which hate and fear have made.
Let us not be deceived about ourselves or about our world,
so that we neither crash in disillusion nor be twisted by cynicism.
If truth and clear vision be granted us, then let us give thanks.
May arrogance never trap us into thinking that truth has but one aspect.
May we stand face to face with ourselves,
recognising that which is truly ours,
and that which is the imposition of others.
And as we do, may we feel the love which unites us all in the depths of our being.
Amen
Reading from Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport
This irresistible attraction to screens is leading people to feel as though they’re ceding more and more of their autonomy when it comes to deciding how they direct their attention. No one, of course, signed up for this loss of control. They downloaded the apps and set up accounts for good reasons, only to discover, with grim irony, that these services were beginning to undermine the very values that made them appealing in the first place: they joined Facebook to stay in touch with friends across the country, and then ended up unable to maintain an uninterrupted conversation with the friend sitting across the table…
[Our] culture’s relationship with these tools is complicated by the fact that they mix harm with benefits. Smartphones, ubiquitous wireless internet, digital platforms that connect billions of people – these are triumphant innovations!… But at the same time, people are tired of feeling like they’ve become a slave to their devices….
We cannot passively allow the wild tangle of tools, entertainments, and distractions provided by the internet age to dictate how we spend our time or how we feel. We must instead take steps to extract the good from these technologies while sidestepping what’s bad. We require a philosophy that puts our aspirations and values once again in charge of our daily experience.
Time of Stillness and Reflection Trust by Matthew Smith (adapted)
Spirit of Life and Love,
In this moment let us be conscious
of the free gifts of air to breathe
and solid ground beneath our feet.
Conscious of these natural realities,
Let us likewise recall the importance
of interpersonal trust in our lives.
While being open to others
Carries its risk,
We know our hearts will shrink and wizen
If we live mainly by suspicion.
As persons of inherent worth and dignity –
Each and every one of us –
Let us claim the right to demand
Justice and accountability
From those in positions of power.
Let us also be willing to open ourselves
To love and trust –
For our own dear sakes.
There is good in the world,
And there is good in people.
Sometimes we need to look deeply –
But it is there.
We know there are tens of millions of hearts
Yearning for the same things that we do –
Fairness, love, care for the earth, compassion.
[silence]
As we reach out
Let us have resolute faith
That we will connect with those
True hearts – the companions
We really need for life’s journey.
So it is that we recognise and celebrate
This hard but invaluable work
Of trusting and reaching out –
In our own personal lives,
And in the practise of spiritual community.
May it ever be so.
Amen
Musical Interlude I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi
Address A Force for Both Good and Evil
This service was triggered by the discovery of an anniversary: thirty years ago today, on 24th August 1995, Microsoft released its Windows 95 operating system and also launched Microsoft Office 95, and Microsoft Network (MSN) – an online service designed to compete with AOL. Google followed three years later, in September 1998, Facebook in February 2004, Twitter in March 2006, and WhatsApp in February 2009. Instagram and TikTok, two of the most widely-used “visual” apps, were launched in October 2010 and September 2016 respectively. And these are just some of the most popular computer applications that have changed the ways we work, play, find things out, and connect with one another, beyond recognition.
My point being, thirty years (or a mere decade in the case of TikTok) is not really a very long time – although for my children’s generation, it is their whole lives, and they grew up surrounded by the wonders and changes which widespread information technology has brought to humankind.
For example, computers and the internet have transformed most of our working lives. Unless we only work with our hands (and even then, choose to never share our work online), most of us will use a computer and the internet (even if it is only e-mail and the internet) to help us do our jobs more efficiently, more effectively. For this service, to give but one example, I found one of my readings and several of the devotional elements online. Having come across the Microsoft Windows anniversary, a few clicks on Google enabled me to discover when the other apps I mentioned were launched. Which would have been much more difficult to do, before the internet. And, because I am able to touch type, actually putting the service together on my laptop is so much quicker than writing it out by hand. It is the work of a moment to swap around paragraphs, or to insert a new one in the middle of the text (which I’ve just done with this paragraph).
Yet the IT revolution has not been an unmixed blessing. Or at least, I don’t think so. Particularly in the West, we are now utterly dependent on the technology to live our lives. Even if we are in the small minority that does not own a computer, or a smart phone, every facet of our lives is affected by IT. Without complicated logistics networks, goods would not appear in the shops (yes, this used to happen manually, but it was far more laborious). There are little computers inside many of our most mundane household appliances, enabling them to work more quickly, more effectively. Many of us now prefer to shop online – it is so much simpler to scroll down a page, click on an item, wait for another computer network to link us to our bank card, and buy it instantly. In some ways, I’m quite old-fashioned: I still prefer to actually drive to the supermarket, and touch the fruit and veg I’m buying, and absolutely prefer to try on any item of clothing, rather than trusting the image on a website.
The various social media platforms have become “home” to many conspiracy theories, where lies are spread as gospel truth. In fact, it can be difficult to distinguish truth from falsehood, these days – the lies are so convincing. It used to be said, “the camera never lies”, but today, sadly, that is far from the truth. All the social media apps are guilty of this to some extent, as every user will only post “the best bits” of their lives, giving their viewers or readers a distorted view of reality.
When did you last check your phone for e-mails? Or Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / TikTok / name your social feed of choice for updates? I’d like to bet that, if you are like me, it wasn’t so long ago – sometime today at the longest, if not a few minutes ago. Living in the 21st century is a complicated business. Never before have we been bombarded with so much information or had so many possibilities as to how we spend our leisure time. I have to admit, smartphones are amazing: we carry around in our pockets and handbags gadgets which can take photos, show films, play games and access millions of websites from around the world, all at the touch of a screen. I do sometimes wonder whether we have lost anything among all this bounty. And whether we might not actually be better off without some of it. Whether we should just let some of it go.
And it has all happened so quickly! Like I said, Facebook only came into existence just over 20 years ago, in February 2004), but now it (and its successors) offer us multiple opportunities to engage with the virtual world. Facebook was the first social media tool I signed up with, and I still check it once a day, to see what is happening in the lives of Unitarian friends around the country. But WhatsApp has now replaced it in my heart. Because through the latter, I can receive daily news and photos of my three young grandsons, in a private group, far away from public social media.
Of course, during the recent Covid lockdowns, when churches and other social venues were closed, virtual communities became vital ways of keeping in touch, offering connection and support. This very online service is the result of a practice I began at the beginning of the first Covid lockdown, and Zoom gatherings have become a way to include those who are unable to visit churches, chapels and meeting houses in person. Not to mention saving many hours of travelling to in person meetings.
So the digital revolution has not been all bad. Far from it. Yet has it come at a price? Cal Newport, in his seminal book, Digital Minimalism, argues that it has. I found it to be a fascinating and challenging read, which caused me to reflect seriously about how much time I was spending mindlessly browsing on my smartphone – usually either on Facebook or Pinterest – or playing time-consuming games like Match 3D. When I first read the book, I was shocked to realise that the time I was spending on social media or playing games was not far short of the ten hours a week Newport mentioned as the typical time spend feeding a Twitter habit. I agree with him that “this cost is almost certainly way too high for the limited benefit it returns.”
I also believe that the more visual social media apps, such as Instagram and TikTok, have contributed hugely to feelings of inadequacy and low self-worth among regular users, particularly teenagers. A while ago, I watched a documentary about the effects of Instagram and found it horrifying to see how much time some spent on it, and the effects of the curated, airbrushed images had on their lives, when compared with their own messy realities. In his book, Newport speaks of “Young people born between 1995 and 2012… iGen.” And he reports that rates of teen depression and suicide have sky-rocketed, much of it “seemingly due to a massive increase in anxiety disorders.” He shares the findings of a university mental health administrator, who reported that, “these shifts in mental health correspond ‘exactly’ to the moment when American smartphone ownership became ubiquitous. The defining traits of iGen, she explains, is that they grew up with [smartphones] and social media, and don’t remember a time before constant access to the internet.”
I believe there are better ways of being in connection with other human beings. Such as being part of a sacred community, with rich social interaction, for example. Or through a old-fashioned phone call, or (best of all) through face-to-face conversation. This last is a far richer experience than any amount of virtual connection. This past weekend, for example, we visited both my children and their families, going to a Food Festival in South Yorkshire with my daughter and her partner and son, and to Northampton’s Balloon Festival with my son, his partner, and their two sons. Which reminded me in a very visceral way that although it is lovely to keep up with what they are doing via WhatsApp, it is absolutely no substitute for listening to the children’s excited chatter and hugging them in real life.
Newport comments, “humans are not wired to be constantly wired.” A few years ago, I realised that I too was spending too much time in the virtual world and not enough being fully present to the real people, the real experiences of my life. So nowadays, I consciously make the effort to have screen-free evenings, although I am not always successful (particularly if WhatsApp pings and I know that I can get new updates about my grandchildren).
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not advocating forsaking social media altogether, and throwing our phones in the nearest skip. Far from it – the digital revolution has been truly that – a revolution. And one which has benefitted our lives in many ways. I fully appreciate that without a computer, without the internet, my working life would be infinitely more hard work. But I believe that balance is all – we (I) need to find a healthy balance between interacting with our social media accounts and being present to our friends and families, and the real world all around us. Because real life is so much more important, so much more soul-nourishing, than the virtual world could ever be.
Closing Words
Spirit of Life and Love,
Our time together is drawing to a close.
May we make use of the wonders
of information technology judiciously,
rather than uncritically.
May we return to our everyday world refreshed,
may we share the love we feel,
may we look out for each other,
and may we keep up our hearts,
now and in the days to come.
Amen
Postlude Stella del Mattino by Ludovico Einaudi