wifi communion - worship trick 62

thanks to mike for spotting this one and posting it on the grace lent blog a few days back. some worship tricks are pieces of liturgy, video loops, ritual ideas and so on but occasionally, as in this case, they really do involve some trickery. we haven't tried this yet but it does sound halfway between amazing and totally naff... if anyone has tried it let me know.

these are called lovers cups and designed by jackie lee and hyemin chung. they have leds and sensors in them so that when a person picks up a glass in one location, red LEDs on a partner's glass glow gently. and when either puts the glass to their lips, sensors make white LEDs on the rim of the other glass glow brightly, so you can tell when someone else takes a sip.

steve picks up on mike's suggestion for an experience of global community by suggesting wi-fi enabled holy communion, adding his own innovation that if the elements were consecrated over a mobile phone could the glasses then glow another colour to show that they were consecrated?!... seems like someone simply has to give this a try

Technorati Tags: lovers cups, communion

Comments

[Makeesha]

*eyebrows raise dubiously* ummm...fascinating

[Steve]

Maybe not the consecration thing but imagine what this could do for world wide communion sunday. Make it work the same for those little communion cups and people at the presbyterian church in Ottomwa Iowa wold know when the folks at St Paul's in London were taking a sip. You could post a map on the big screens that showed what churches were where in the word and who was sipping when. It's got possibilities.

[Makeesha]

hehe...yeah, my Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic friends as well as most people I know are having coronaries right now...certainly can't deny the creativity of it though.