Two years ago BPL Mobile customers in India were reportedly able to send an SMS PUJA (prayer) to be recited for them at a popular Bombay temple for 51 rupees (60p), avoiding the hassle of queueing at the temple in person.
Now, BBC 5 Live’s Phil Elliot reports, the "Church of England is to encourage the use of mobile phones during services…"The ‘Service of Thanksgiving for the Mothers’ Union’, which is to be held in a football stadium this weekend, is likely to be attended by around 4500 people. Instead of collecting offering money in the usual way, which would be impractical given the size of venue and congregration, The Bishop of St Edmundbury & Ipswich will instead be giving worshippers an SMS shortcode number so they can donate via text message.
Some worshippers might want to cut out the middleman altogether and send a text straight to God. A quick Google search came up with the rather promisingly titled page "Send God a Text Message" but, sadly, having looked around the site, I’m fairly confident there’s no number or skype username listed.
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