Articles - Miscellaneous

St Edmund's on YouTube

Many of you will be familiar with YouTube the internet site which allows members of the public to broadcast their own home made videos for the world to see. It has become the second most visited site on the internet. Some of the most popular videos have been viewed many millions of times. Naturally as a 21st century church we wish to be part of this revolution in communication. We have already posted a couple of items but are keen to have further ideas and examples.

The first item concerned the appointment of a new vicar.
In order to comply with European employment law the post had to be advertised all over the continent. It was decided to video the preliminary interview with a Padre Capello who saw the ad in the Italian magazine La Tempo del Churcho. Unfortunately Padre Capello speaks very little English so the interview was conducted through an interpreter. He was asked for his plans for enhancing the worship experience at St Edmunds and came up with a number of interesting ideas.
* The choir would take up a 5-3-2 formation using overlapping contraltos who would move forward to attack the louder passages and fall back in defence during quieter moments.
* Services would be conducted in Latin. This would allow members of the congregation to focus throughout on what vegetables to serve with Sunday lunch and where to take Granny and the kids afterwards, rather than only doing this during the sermon
* The quality of communion would be improved by the provision of ciabatta bread and bottles of decent Chianti.

The most persuasive point in his favour to be short listed was that members of the Sicilian branch of the Capello family would be visiting the churchwardens to make them an offer they could not refuse.

On to the second video.
As some of you will be aware the church's finances are not as healthy as they might be. At a recent meeting of your Finance and Stewardship committee it was decided to raise funds by organising a sponsored pole dancing at the Peppermint Hippo a gentlemen's club in the city centre. ( Any of you chaps who still aren't members feel free to email me on maninadirtymac@ntlworld.com for details). This was not particularly successful as many of the ladies who turned up thought pole dancing was an opportunity to take to the dance floor with immigrants from Eastern Europe.

So get out there with your mobile phones and video cameras and put St Edmund's on YouTube.

David Everett, 1st April 2008

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