Q. Is it acceptable to deal with time-critical online business while attending church? Some matters just won’t wait — Glastonbury tickets when they went on sale last Sunday, for example, or online airline check-in. Maybe you could suggest the types of church service when use of a smartphone could be permitted. Weddings (unless you are getting married?) and christenings (unless you are a godparent and ‘font side’ at the time)? Funerals would, I imagine, be a no-no.
— T.L., Wantage, Oxon
A. Thank you for a query less facetious than it seems. Before phones doubled as cameras, it was quite obvious they should be turned off in church at all times, without exceptions. Now that they do double as cameras, the boundaries have been blurred.
What if the vicar has given permission and you are filming a bride coming back down the aisle when the smartphone rings? Obviously you can’t answer it.
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