Stop shooting things in Manchester Cathedral

This has been the main Anglican news story of the last week (apart from the one involving dubious ordinations). I have not posted about it because I was on my Church Weekend Away and then there were some other reasons. Sorry that the cartoon is mildly mediocre. The man on the left is leaning a bit, but then some people do lean a bit.

The gist of the story is that a computer game distributed by Sony uses images of the inside of Manchester Cathedral as a venue for some shooting of aliens and they did not ask first. Ruth Gledhill reported on it and has a video of the game on her web blog.

Having seen these images I have no hesitation in agreeing with the Cathedral Authorities (with whom I have spoken) that the use of the Cathedral in the game is most inappropriate. The latest news is that the Cathedral is asking people in Japan to put pressure on Sony to change its ways.

In my own small way I will join the campaign by encouraging people to use TDK audiocassettes rather than Sony ones. You might be particularly interested, for instance, in the TDK endless cassette. These are often used by Charismatic worship groups to record worship sessions that go on ad infinitum. “I could sing of your love forever”, and that sort of thing. To quote the TDK promotional blurb:

If you think nothing is endless, think again.

Indeed.

There are some other bloggers who have provided more interesting and / or in-depth analysis. Most of these would describe themselves as Christians, but they might not all do, I can’t remember:

The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence: Manchester Cathedral vs.Sony
wannabepriest / Break out the heavy weapons, it’s the Dean & Chapter of Manchester Cathedral
rejesus blog » Blog Archive » Jesus and Virtual Desecration
The Wardman Wire » Video Game Battle between Sony and Manchester Cathedral: Update
Sanctus1 Blog: Cathedral treads the path of most Resistance, also More on the Cathedral and Sony…
Tech Digest: Does the Church of England have any rights over a virtual Manchester Cathedral? (By Andy Merrett, who is a Christian)
Grumpy Gamer – Manchester Cathedral vs. Sony (This one is on Sony’s side)
Gun-fight gaming and Manchester Cathedral « Spirituality of Play

Lots of bloggers who are self confessing not-Christians have posted too. I have read quite a few, and whilst most of the blogs themselves discuss the matter in a reasonable way the comments often showed the depth of hatred a lot of people have for the Church of England. It didn’t surprise me, but also it did, if you understand what I mean. I’m not posting any links in case a horde of grumpy gamers come after me and start shooting me with computerised guns.