9 September 2026

It is a long time since we took our record-players down to the kirk for the Watchnight service in 1984 to play Geldof’s, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’.  And three years later to show the children Elizabeth Laird’s retelling of the Christmas Story illustrated with Ethiopia’s beautiful iconography.

Cassettes of the service were distributed to housebound people. Videos and DVDs were shown periodically. By 1999, the Panel on Worship was referring to ‘multi-media worship’ as ‘highly relevant’. In 2007, CARTA proposed a paper to help Kirk Sessions discuss the issue of screens.

Whilst Covid abolished the uplifting of the offering, the Great Entry and the common cup, the Kirk  creatively used the internet to make  connections which have continued apace. With the arrival of AI, Pope Leo counselled his priests to exercise their own brain and share their faith which a machine cannot do.

Despite its wonders, the screen cannot replicate the intimacy of the story teller. Illustrative material requires judicious application just like  literary quotes. The refocus of worship onto screen rather than Table is reminiscent of  the sixties dilemma between table and telly. The counter-cultural dimension of the Church has been highlighted in all the internet abuse and ill health.