Could you give up email?

Schools in Lancashire are being encouraged to give up emails for Lent and return to letters and phones for the 40 days before Easter.

Peter Ballard, Archdeacon of Lancaster, has urged 200 schools in the region to adopt "a policy during Lent of simply communicating through the normal mail system".

In his role as director of education for the Blackburn Diocese, Archdeacon Peter Ballard said the board decided that during Lent it would not respond to emails with an email and would make responses through the traditional mail system.

"Personally I’d like to switch the whole email system off for Lent as I’m absolutely convinced it’s added to the stress in our lives," he said. "It makes us believe that everything requires an instantaneous response, and that there is no time in the day when we cannot be contacted."

"I think there was something very special about being able to deal with the post in a morning, knowing that you could then get on with the rest of the day’s tasks
without being bombarded with lots of documents that people want read immediately.

Archdeacon Ballard believes email depersonalises much of what we do and said he has no doubt that if people had to pick up a telephone and say some of the things they say in emails, they would simply never be said.

What do you think to Archdeacon Ballard's plans for Lent? Can you give up email for Lent? Have your say in our Forums.

www.blackburn.anglican.org

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