By: Victor Morgan
An older woman was quoted saying, “I hate progress.” Sometimes, I do too. After all, much called progress is not progress. Even so, there have been gains over the years that no one would want to discard.
This past week the church I serve marked its 39th anniversary. Needless to say, there have been many changes since its founding, not the least in the world of technology. The church’s first bulletin was typed on a manual typewriter and copied at a local print shop. That may sound primitive, but a number of churches in the area at the time were still printing their bulletins on mimeograph machines. In case you have never encountered one of these contraptions, they were large and bulky machines which produced copies using a waxy stencil cut on a typewriter with the ribbon disabled. I am glad our congregation did not have to wrestle with one of these beasts.
Needless to say, in the 1980s there were no mobile phones. If you were away from home and needed to make a call, you looked for a coin phone located in a booth or on the wall of a business. Many still had dials, and printed telephone directories were essential to conducting day-to-day business.
On the positive side, if you dialed a firm or government office, a real person would pick up. Thus, today’s maize of pressing this number for that and another for something else was avoided. In most cases, you got your business done quicker and with much less frustration.
Of course, there was no internet. If you wanted news, you picked up a newspaper; if you wanted to know how to spell a word, you looked it up in the dictionary; if researching a topic, you went to the library; if you wanted information about school closures due to weather, you turned on the local radio station.
Local newspapers in those days recorded the pulse of a community. In addition to accounts of crashes and government meetings, they were your go-to place for baby announcements, engagements and weddings notices and obituaries . . . along with “Lordy, Lordy, look who turned 40” ads. On the day the paper came out, people would sit in their cars in front of the post office with their newspapers open, eagerly devouring the contents.
Customs have likewise evolved as the years have passed. For example, 39 years ago many businesses in small towns closed on Wednesday afternoon, and no one would suggest holding a meeting or sporting event on this day. After all, this was prayer meeting night.
Much has changed, but much has not. The need for God; the need for announcing the Gospel; the need for loving one’s neighbor, the need for civility, good manners, civic involvement and personal interaction . . . these things remain constant. Perhaps St. Paul said it best, “”Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
O GOD, the strength of all those who put their trust in thee; Mercifully accept our prayers; and because, through the weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Collect for the First Sunday in Trinty, Book of Common Prayer)
The Rev. Victor H. Morgan is rector of St. Luke’s Church, Blue Ridge.
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