The Dangers of Graven Images

After prayer and consideration, I have decided. The Bogwulf Baptists are reverting to use of the Redemption Hymnal.

It was my own fault, suggesting that we moved towards the use of the laptop and the data projector. I had thought it would give us a more modern edge - although still firmly rooted in the First Century. But we had struggled with that old Overhead Projector for a long time, and we needed to move forwards. I thought.

But I have found that the use of a computer reduced our chances for spontaneity. In the "old days" it was possible, under the guidance of the Spirit, simply to change the running order of hymns. I would just say, "And now we'll have that old song - Hallelujah - and Roderick Chalfont, who has the the Gift of Overhead Projection, would only have to find the acetate for the correct song called Hallelujah. Sometimes he could go through nine or ten songs before he found the right one, but at least I was Spirit-lead, even if he wasn't. And neither, sometimes, was the organist when we found she couldn't actually play that version of Hallelujah.


But with the computer today, when I announce we were going to sing Hallelujah instead of the song I had previously chosen under the guidance of the Spirit, but which the Spirit had now changed His mind about - we then had to wait while Roderick searched through the directories on his computer to discover the right song. And while the songs I had initially - under the guidance of the Spirit - chosen were nicely formatted into Powerpoint, the song that I - I mean the Spirit - now chose was in a Word document. But that was not the great problem. Oh no, the Bogwulf Baptists are hardy folk, able to sing with spirit and devotion regardless of the file format of the song.

No. The problem was that, as Roderick went through his folders trying to find the right version of Hallelujah, we had a glimpse of the contents of the other folders on his PC. It turns out that Roderick and Mrs Chalfont have been putting other things on their PC which they maybe did not wish to have unexpectedly projected onto the wall of a Baptist chapel. It was funny though. I didn't realise that Ailsa was a traffic warden. In any case, Roderick has told me that he is changing his default folder view from "Large Thumbnails" to "List". And I am going back to the Redemption Hymnal. It may limit spontaneity, but it does not contain pictures.