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Good morning.Ìý Looking back, it seems like a different world.Ìý One in which small suburban living rooms were crammed to overflowing with people transfixed by a tiny flickering screen in the corner of the room.Ìý Their main reason for being there on this day in 1953 was to see the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the second.Ìý There seemed to be an atmosphere of patriotic enthusiasm about that even a small boy like me couldn’t miss.Ìý But for many, at least as big an attraction was the chance to see a television set actually working

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The technology then was pretty primitive – the screens not much bigger than a modern smart-phone and the pictures, black and white and, frankly, blurred.Ìý But it just seemed so – clever – that such a thing was possible.Ìý It gave people lucky enough to have access to a TV chance to feel part of an event of which ordinarily they would just be distant spectators.Ìý Radio had done that to some extent but – now the sound had pictures.Ìý

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I strongly suspect that one of the reasons that the Queen is so much valued by so many people is that the generation that grew up with her has – largely through television - been able to feel an involvement with her that just wasn’t possible before.

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But that was then.Ìý Things have moved on.Ìý For many of us television has become so much a part of our lives that we long since stopped seeing it as a technological wonder.Ìý But maybe we’ve also lost our sense of wonder about being able to see and be part of events and experiences in ways that otherwise we couldn’t dream about.

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And to my mind, that’s a pity.Ìý

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Maybe, we’ll never get back the awe at the technology that people had in 1953, but maybe it would be good to pause sometimes and ask ourselves whether we should try to recover the sense of privilege that our access to a world beyond ourselves can give.Ìý

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Father, we are truly grateful for the opportunities with which technology enriches our lives.Ìý Make us sensitive to the responsibilities that come with them.Ìý Amen.