On a foggy night
in the eighteenth century, Peterborough’s then MP Matthew Wyldbore was lost on
the edge of the fens. Driving back from
Flag Fen last year in the dark I can see how the topography could be confusing
without landmarks and dangerous with ditches to the left and the right. He was saved by hearing the bells of StJohn’s Church ringing out and by following the sound was led safely back to his
home in the Mansion House (near the Bull Hotel). In thanksgiving for this he left money for a
peal to be rung and a sermon preached on the anniversary of his death (15th
March). The ringers would receive a
payment together with ‘entertainment’ for their labours and the preacher £1, 1s. I wondered if writing a blog would enable me
to claim my £1.05? I would offset it
against lunch near his former home. He
also left 10s for bread for the poor.
Sadly I understand the money has long since been used up. The bells are still rung though in his memory
on 15th March. We collect for
the food bank, so bread for the poor is still being honoured too.
How we communicate
has changed enormously over the centuries.
Bells are still rung, delighting us from the tower on the North side of
the cathedral (and from St John’s as well where I am also vicar), and sermons
preached, though the style of both has developed. Eighteenth century preaching styles would not
be to taste today and wouldn’t get past the Dean’s ten-minute rule. We have though branched out through printing
and now the internet to find new ways of telling our story and sharing our
news.
One of my responsibilities
in the cathedral is to oversee how we use social media: Facebook and
Twitter. These are relatively new, but
in the fast-moving world of the internet ‘new’ and ‘long term’ have much
shorter timescales than a 900-year-old cathedral might be used to. The World Wide Web is twenty-five years old
this year and it has changed enormously over that time. Most of us can now take advantage of more
computing power in our phones than was used to send the first men to the
moon. Accessing the internet has changed
from large desk based computers, to mobile devices that can be held in the palm
of our hands. Strangely, the fashion at
the moment seems to be to use tablets to take photographs outside the cathedral
and it looks a little odd to look out of the window and see people holding up
these large slabs to take pictures. Many
of these photos are then shared instantly on the internet, particularly through
Facebook and Twitter. Some will tag that
they have been here and so we are brought into the conversation and experience
with them.
We started the
cathedral Facebook page last year and have had the Twitter account for a little
longer. Along with everyone else we have
been discovering the best way to use these tools and our following has grown. We have been praised for how we use them. There are three of us in the driving seat;
the bulk of the work being undertaken by Liz Hurst, our new communications
officer who took over from Sarah McGhie in the autumn, and Daniel Mason who
works with her. I chip in from time to
time, especially providing out of hours cover.
It is very easy to make assumptions about why people have chosen to
follow or like our pages, but the reasons are as varied as people are. Just like we can’t make assumptions about
people’s faith – what they do believe and what they don’t, and that goes for
those who claim not to be religious as much as those who do – we can’t be at
all clear what ‘liking’ or ‘following’ actually means. What we can be sure is that whatever we post
on these social media sites will pop into their inboxes and some kind of
response will follow, even if it is just to move on to the next item of
interest as they scroll past. We are in
their world and they have invited us in and we are delighted to be there.
We can’t, of
course, control what we sit alongside.
The latest news item from the cathedral about changes to the times of
Evensong because of a concert or who is giving a special talk this evening or
just a nice picture of spring daffodils in the sunshine, these could sit next
to anything from the latest political big story to a friend’s child pulling
faces into the camera. We are taken back
to St Paul walking through the marketplace of Athens and finding a vast array
of competing stories and claims, artifacts and pass-times. This is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles
(17:16-34). The cathedral is vying for
attention alongside a myriad of other calls and attractions, to be noticed amidst
many distractions and other interests.
It is a small vignette of the social reality we find ourselves set in
today. Love it or loath it, social media
gives us a sneak into the way many of us approach the cathedral and all that it
does.
The most popular
posts, those that elicit the biggest response, seem to be images of the
cathedral’s stunning vista and architecture, stories about the choir and
musical life. A picture of the cathedral
and daffodils in the spring sunshine I mentioned a moment ago was one I posted
back in March and it proved to be one of the most popular posts we have made. After the gloom of a very wet winter the sign
of hope and fresh beginnings that it displayed was understandably
welcomed. It was good to be the purveyor
of good news and hope. That is after all
our overarching aim and purpose!
There are great
debates about the effects of the internet on how we think, particularly the
reducing of complex issues to 140 characters on Twitter. Attention spans have reduced dramatically and
the average time spent on a given internet page is just a few seconds. If it doesn’t catch the attention in that
time, the person moves on to something else and it is left behind. We can’t change this; it is part of the given
of modern life and reveals where most are coming from when they encounter us. A conversation with a website developer
recently revealed that there is software that can record where on a page people
have clicked with their mouse. There is
a tendency for visitors to a page to be attracted to faces, particularly the
eyes. There is encouragement here that
social interaction is still a draw and holds an attraction to us. So if you want more people to visit a page,
put a smiling face on it and we will be drawn to it.
We also know that
Twitter and Facebook attract people for different things. Some find Facebook more interactive and so
discussions and comments tend to flow on our Facebook posts. Twitter seems to be more information based
and people will share the story or ‘favourite’ it to show their appreciation,
but we don’t get many comments back on Twitter.
Twitter is good for links to longer stories on the website, and there
are many people who use this as a way of sifting information for a longer read,
though that may depend on whether they are reading on a phone, tablet or larger
device. Twitter is good for now, and the
posts tend to have a relatively short shelf-life (and in the internet ‘short’
means very short).
Making use of
social media sites enables us to keep in touch with people who may be some
distance away from us as well as those who feel they are more frequently
involved with the life of the cathedral.
It makes connections with those otherwise not in touch with us and
begins a relationship which can develop over time. A recent report on cathedrals by the
Christian think tank Theos called Spiritual Capital referred to this as ‘bridging
and bonding’. We bridge an otherwise
distance and through the connectedness which ensues allow bonds to develop. Social media sites enable us to strengthen
these bonds among close supporters and those more distant. All of us operate with different levels of
community. One form involves the
networks that we select. Social media
are a large-scale version of this. We
choose who to follow, who to allow to follow us and if we don’t like what is
being said we don’t have to see it. This
is very different to older models of what it means to be community (and not
without negative costs). It is how it is
for many people and the cathedral needs to be in the mix.
Anything involving
the internet is a developing media. We
are having to learn new ways of being and also remind ourselves and others of
some older courtesies. Many organisations
have developed guidelines and protocols for the use of social media, reminding
their staff and volunteers that they are ambassadors of the organization. We have done this too. This is a concept that we find in St Paul’s
writings, when he refers to followers of Jesus Christ being ambassadors of
Christ and so how we behave reflects on the faith that is to inspire and shape
us (2 Corinthians 5:20). So how we are
on the internet is no different. Respect
and honesty are just as important when the other person is not in the same room
as you as they are when they are. In
fact I like to ask ‘who else is in the room’ when thinking about the
internet. Who else could see this? There is no private in the internet so
whatever we write can be seen by thousands of people – it is not just a private
conversation between two people or just the group we think we are talking
to. Social media is more like
broadcasting than a private chat. If
anyone posts anything of an inappropriate nature on our pages we will and do
remove them – thankfully this is very rare.
In the main people
behave with good nature on our social media pages. This is encouraging because the normal social
triggers of face-to-face contact are not present through the internet. For all that calling it ‘social media’ might
imply it is actually quite an impersonal way of communicating. The mask is that we try to make it feel
personal by imagining the real people behind it. There is though no substitute for
face-to-face contact, for the handshake or embrace, for conversation over
coffee in the south transept (or at Coffee and Cookies of course!).
We have come a long
way since Matthew Wyldbore’s time, let alone since the first Abbot Seaxwulf. We still penetrate the fog to announce
services with bells and still preach sermons.
But we have many more tools of communication at our disposal, ones which
can span continents. As our predecessors
have done over the centuries we are making sure that we use today’s modes of
communication to connect with today’s people.
If Christ was to return today, I still think he would come in person and
not just send a Tweet, but he’d probably make use of all the means available to
call out and keep in touch with his followers (and those who clicked ‘like’
too).
Follow us on
Twitter: @pborocathedral
Article for The Friends of Peterborough Cathedral Journal 2014
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