wannabepriest

Nearly a year ago, I finally made a move to the dark side (or the light depending on your perspective) and bought an Apple Macintosh computer.

After years and years and years of being a Windows user, I basically got fed up with the viruses, the clunky way Windows operated. I needed a new machine and I knew that if I bought a PC that meant Vista (at the time) and I had heard so much negative stuff about that.

So I bought a Mac. I also signed up for an iPhone and I have been loving my conversion ever since.

Now this post is not about my Mac conversion. This post is about the new iPad which is shortly to make its way into shops.

As a relatively new Mac convert, I was interested to see what they would launch and what it might do given my very good experiences with their computers and phones. My initial reaction was that I couldn’t see the point of a tablet, even a very nicely designed one, like the iPad. Tablets have been around for a good while and I’ve never felt the need for one.

However, having seen it on video (not yet handled one myself), I can see how I might make use of it. All sorts of scenarios where the phone is too small an interface to deal with and finding the PC and going through all the rigmarole is fine but could be easier and quicker and lazier for yours truly. So I’m saving up – I think I’m going to get an iPad despite my initial misgivings.

However, this post is not about whether I buy the new iPad as such. This post is really about one of my side questions that I am really interested in right now. The question is this: is the iPad a liturgical game-changer?

It’s size and weight and the ability to control the screen with my finger and the multi-touch controls that I’m now well used to from the iPhone could come together in a perfect storm. I think I could see myself presiding at Communion with the iPad in front of me instead of the book (or folder of printed pages) that I currently use.

For some time, Church of England clergy have been using the Internet to download Common Worship texts to produce customized service sheets that use all the rich liturgical resources that our church has been producing. Some have been projecting those words onto screens. All of them have been using either the official Common Worship website or a software programme like Visual Liturgy to do all their planning and prep. But, of course, when it comes down to the delivery in the service itself, you needed paper with all your words printed on it.

That could now be about to change and I am intrigued. Apart from the potential ease of operation for the President at Communion (and the increased amount of clean surface area on the holy table), I could see various other potential ramifications:

• Need something off-the-cuff and want to pull something down from the Internet? Easy with an iPad.
• Could the iPad be wirelessly plugged into the projection system (for those churches doing so) so that the President is once again no longer reliant on a separate computer operator? Anyone who has worshipped in such circumstances will know the damage a liturgically unaware operator can do to the flow of worship.
• Visual Liturgy could find itself cut seriously adrift – the whole mode of preparation and operation would have to change… and it would have to get Mac compatible.

Anyway. If and when I get an iPad, I’ll give it a go and let you know how it shakes out.

Remember, you heard it here first. I guess the crucial thing will be – just don’t spill the wine on it!