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January 3rd, 2009

At the Apple store

I went to the Apple store in London.

The worship space was brightly lit, and row upon row of devotees stood at wooden benches gazing in adoration at white machines of varying shapes and sizes. A glass staircase lead upwards, where further rows of worshippers were doing much the same as those downstairs. People wearing bright shirts stood behind other desks, and names appeared on large screens. In the upper sanctuary a gathering of the faithful sat on wide comfortable pews and listened to a sermon.

I found the whole experience quite baffling. I could not see any orders of service anywhere, so it was rather difficult to know what I should be doing. Eventually I plucked up the courage to approach a sidesman, who explained what the worshippers were all doing and answered some of my questions about the basic tenets of the faith. He took me over to one of the white machines and explained some of the ways in which I too could become a follower should I choose. There would of course be very real costs involved.

Wary of making a commitment on my first visit I thanked the sideman and explained that I was in a bit of a hurry. To his credit he did not seem to mind.

I left clutching a parish magazine and thinking that returning on another occasion might not be entirely out of the question.

14 Comments »



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 am.

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14 Responses to “At the Apple store”


  1. Alastair Cutting says:

    Oh, I think there is more where that came from Dave…

    Followers of the Cult of Mac are often known as zealots. And have you heard of the Mac evangelists, and the testimonies of those who have ’switched to Mac’, having moved over from ‘the dark side’?

    There was even a Second Coming of Jobs . Interesting, as the cult now considers how its leadership may be handed on to the disciples.

    (I had a couple more useful links, but the comments editor rejected them…)

  2. Welcome to the Apple Church « The Sacred Fish Project says:

    [...] January 3, 2009 by sacredfish Link of the week – Dave Walkers reminded me I need to get some bits and pieces for my IPod… [...]

  3. Anne says:

    I ordinarily don’t flog my own blog, but you might get a kick out of this post:

    http://rosarystudio.com/?cat=16&paged=4

    Warning: It has naughty words. Well, they’re not very naughty. I have since upgraded that Mac to a Core Duo, which I’ve had for two happy years now. I wouldn’t trade in my Mac for anything. I just feel a bit awkward when I have to go to the Apple Store.

    If you get a Mac you may spend time worrying about the file system (see the video at the bottom of that post) but you won’t worry much about malware, viruses, and other ugly things. Two weeks before Christmas I bought an HP mini Netbook to carry around town with me. Two days after it came into the house I had a nasty virus. I think I like the Mac better.

  4. Chris Clark says:

    the fact that there are fewer persecutions of Maccers than Pcers is due to the fact that the evil ones do not think it is worth persecuting the Macers..

    I am concerned that you may get caught up in meaningless theological debates between Macers and Pcers..ultimately it is about what you do with your machine not which machine you own..

  5. Worship « On Living says:

    [...] 4, 2009 Worship Posted by tallandrew under culture, faith, technology | Tags: apple, technology, worship |  [...]

  6. Wendy says:

    macs are the best

  7. joe says:

    macs are so 2007. Linux is the future ;)

    Dave, you scared me in your first line. You Went to Regent Street, London with the intention of shopping…?

  8. Tim says:

    How bizarre is this? Just yesterday evening, without reading your blog post first, I passed the Apple Store in Regent Street, and went in for what I can only describe as the evening service.

    I did not even know there was an Apple Store there until that moment, but I could not resist the bright lights. In fact, I even left once, then was drawn back for a second visit minutes later.

    I updated my Facebook status from one of the MacBook Airs on display, and was also about to write a blog post about the worshipful atmosphere I found there. I didn’t pick up a parish magazine though; they must have distributed all of those before I turned up.

  9. Ian says:

    Wondrous. Thanks Dave.

  10. Youthblog says:

    Happy new year Dave,

    thanks for this post, it made me laugh
    (did occur to me that as religions go, it’s quite judgmental ……. or at the least, not very pc)

  11. Mac worship « A work in progress says:

    [...] Anyhow - read this this morning and enjoyed it.  You might like it, too.  Perhaps. [...]

  12. Russ says:

    Come and join the Order of the Holy Mac(kerel), Dave, we’d love to have you on board.

    Depending on what you want to do on your gleaming white machine, you may find that a visit to jolly old eBay will yield a machine of your choice for rather less spondooliks than the bright-shirted ones will extract for gleaming new one.

    I’m on a five-year-old eMac at work, and we still have an eight year-old iMac trundling away at home.

  13. Steve Hearn says:

    Dave we might convert you if we could nail you to the table and get you to spend some time with a wacom and Mac, then you would love the Mac faith, the only true faith…

  14. dennisthemennis says:

    I too have worshipped at this church for one year and find that its the only church I have been too that does not argue when there is a problem with what they issue you with, they just magically make a new one appear! I do find that I have a lot in common with the people who attend tho. Great blog by the way.