The Poor Clares of York are a great example of contemplative meeting contemporary. Since their founding, the Poor Clares have prayed for the outside world, receiving prayer requests in various formats over the centuries. Hardly an area for business process improvement, I imagine the nuns have their prayer processes fine-tuned.
Enter the Interaction Research Studio from Goldsmiths, University of London. Their mission is to “explore the design of computational systems for everyday life” and “design products to create situations that encourage playfulness, exploration and insight”.
It seems they hit a home run with at least two of the three goals, as they created a “prayer companion”, known as “Goldie”. Goldie streams headlines from around the world, and as tickers of tumult scroll across the screen, the nuns do a bit more than shake their head in disbelief – they pray for the people and the situation.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Now, the practical, iPad loving side of me simply wonders why they didn’t just set-up the device with TweetDeck rolling through, but the more I thought about it, the more I loved the stated mission of Goldsmiths and their desire to create an “interdisciplinary approach to interaction”.
Note, I didn’t say an “approach to problem solving”.
Which brings us back to the Poor Clares. They certainly weren’t knocking on the doors of academia or tech firms trying to figure out how to get more news; but, they are here, as Sister Paul says, “for channeling people’s needs to God”. Not necessarily problem solving, but rather interaction through prayer.
Perhaps this is a lesson in taking the right approach – commit it to prayer first, then take the action. And, as technology changes, the need for prayer doesn’t.