(Staff)  A British priest has updated a traditional back-to-work ceremony after Christmas called "Plow Monday" by encouraging city workers in London’s financial district to bring in their cellphones and laptops for a blessing.

In England the first Monday after Epiphany (January 6^th) was known as Plow Monday. In the medieval service dating back to 1378, English villagers gathered to bless a symbolic farming implement dragged to the church's door. Women would also bring their distaffs, the sticks which held the wool or flax they spun by hand with spinning wheels.  

But the Rev. David  Parrott said that the medieval ceremony didn't have much relevance for his church, which was "nowhere near a field in the middle of London."

Parrott offered a blessing over a pile of high-tech laptops and smart phones on the altar of London's 17^th-century St. Lawrence Jewry church Jan. 13. Parishioners also took out their mobiles while the priest recited a blessing over them.

After the Reformation, Puritans thought it superstitious to believe that God blessed things. They would not even have rings blessed in wedding services. For them only people could be blessed. Anglicans, however, believe that God can set aside or sanctify objects for a special purpose.  

The priest told the media that the service was to remind the capital's busy workaholics that "God's grace can reach them in many ways." He added: "It's the technology that is our daily working tool, and it's a technology we should bless."

St. Lawrence Jewry is the official church of the Corporation of the City of London, which runs the capital's financial district. The priest hoped the ceremony had made worship "lively and relevant” to the workers.