Digital Clericalism for the 21st Century

More than twenty years ago, a young Anglican priest wrote, ‘Some laity still find it fanciful that their parish has a Web page, and some clergy proudly boast that they don’t know how to use the Internet and never plan to learn. (If you want to know how that sounds to me, substitute “telephone” in the sentence. Substitute “car.” Substitute “electric light.)”’ The technology has changed since then, but many of the attitudes remain the same. Some laity find it fanciful that their parish has a mobile app, and some clergy proudly boast that they don’t know how to use social media and never plan to learn. The coronavirus pandemic and the shutdowns that came with it may have finally been able to drag the Church into the 21st century, but unfortunately, this sometimes means being dragged into the 2000s or 2010s instead of the 2020s, while the rest of the world’s technology progresses at the same breakneck pace.

There are two significant challenges facing the church in an increasingly digital age, and it’s difficult to tell which is more dangerous. One is the temptation to ignore the opportunities for digital ministry, waiting until the pandemic is over and life can go ‘back to normal’. This approach conveniently overlooks the fact that the people we are called to preach and minister to and with have been living in a hybrid online/in-person life for years. Not engaging with them in a significant segment of their life means abandoning the mission of the church and slipping into irrelevance. We should be fighting that temptation with everything we’ve got.

But there’s another temptation...

This post originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of Anglican Life.

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