From the Telegraph.co.uk: The Rolling Reverend: Vicar Skates Up And Down The Aisle
Roger Preece, 44, has been dubbed The Rolling Reverend after skating up and down the aisle of his church in roller blades.
Parishioners at St Mary's Church, Bowden, near Altrincham, Cheshire, had expected a conventional sermon on the Resurrection.
But midway through his service the Rev Preece slipped on his blades, stepped out of the pulpit and took to the boards.
The one-time investment banker hit upon the roller-blading idea as a way of illustrating the astonishment that would have greeted Christ's Resurrection.
"While I was skating I was saying to the congregation 'Some of you will no doubt say later that you saw the vicar of Bowden skating around the church. If two or three of you say this then people will know it is true'.
"The skating seemed to get my message across.
"All the adults were wide eyed with shock and the children were thrilled and giggling," he recalled.
And for an encore, he did a grind on the communion rail....
Seriously, though, this type of shenanigans is what one might find at a Rock n' Roll Bible School, with the big screens, big stage and mega-Church theatrics. The place some of my relatives attend had a "Stomp"-like performance for their Easter celebration, for instance. What garbage cans and other unlikely percussive instruments have to do with the Resurrection, I've no idea. But then, I don't understand much that goes on at those mega-Churches. But I digress.
Rev Preece's congregation isn't going to remember anything about the Resurrection - but they're going to remember the roller blading. And that's the problem here; despite his so-called 'good intentions', the focus is on him and him alone, instead on Christ and Christ alone.
And as it so often happens, it opens the door to the possibility that the congregation will come to future Masses with an expectation of "what is the Rolling Reverend going to do this week?" A zip-line from the choir loft to the sanctuary? Rappelling down from the bell tower? I'm guessing it might not be with the expectation of worshipping God and participating in the Holy Sacrifice. And that's the danger.
Think about it - do amusement parks build new rides that are less exciting than the one they just installed the summer before? Are movie remakes and sequels less exciting with worse special effects than the original (no one mention Planet of the Apes, okay?)? Do you think next Easter the mega-Church my relatives attend will put on a show less exciting than Stomp? Of course the answers are No.
But the Mass is not for our entertainment. It is not a diversion, a way to spend an hour or so on a Sunday. The Mass is for our salvation.
Hopefully someone will remind the Rolling Reverend of that, and he'll use his in-line skates anywhere else other than the Church.
