Communications – end of term report

Sermon also preached at St Mary Abbots, London on Sunday July 10 th 2010

As I wrote my end of term report this week at the end of my third year of part time research at the
University of Sheffield two very different events of the past week came to mind.

First – news that the Church of England have published the 1662 Book of Common Prayer by Thomas
Cranmer on line for the first time; in its entirety! I wonder what Archbishop Cranmer would think!

Second – with a group of members of this church I have just read and this week watched the movie of
Cormac McCarthy’s book THE ROAD - Directed by John Hillcoat. With Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-
McPhee, Robert Duvall. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son walking along a road to
nowhere.

The contrast between an increasingly networked, online, global society and the fragile nature of it all as
depicted in THE ROAD was stunning.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stated that “human beings are born to
communicate”.

But what we are getting in the guise of a communications revolution is

An indiscriminate information flow

A globalised context for major communication
Audiences spreading and revenues migrating
A massive culminative effect on each of us
A challenge for the Christian faith

2 points to guide us:

Richard Chartres – Bishop of London – said in a lecture a few years ago at St Brides Fleet Street that
within the context of the communications revolution we need to get our priorities as a church sorted
out: “instead, we are fidgeting with our own agenda whilst the real battle rages elsewhere” – and he is
right on this.

David Clines – who taught me in Sheffield many years ago – has stated categorically that “the Bible
needs all the publicity it can get”. Biblical illiteracy even amongst the faithful is shocking and this needs
to be addressed.

The communications revolution demands that we get our priorities right and get close to the sacred
texts which have guided the church for thousands of years!

St Paul was worried by the sea of Paganism which he saw as a real threat to the bedding down of the
truth of the Kingdom.

As we look out, as we bombarded ever increasingly with words and messages, what do we actually see?