iQueen: Elizabeth Debuts Christmas Podcast
Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas speech will be available as a podcast this year for the first time.
A download can be ordered in advance for free on the British monarchy's Web site www.royal.gov.uk, royal officials said Friday.
Internet users can also view the speech online, and a text version will be posted on the royal Web site.
In her message, broadcast throughout Britain and the Commonwealth of its former colonies on Dec. 25, the queen will speak about the importance of the relationship between the generations, according to excerpts released Friday.
"The wisdom and experience of the great religions point to the need to nurture and guide the young, and to encourage respect for the elderly," the monarch will say.
The broadcast will show the queen, wearing a green outfit, chatting with schoolchildren as she helps them make a collage of a Nativity scene.
"It should twinkle rather well, shouldn't it ... especially when the lights are on it," the queen remarks.
The speech itself was filmed at Southwark Cathedral in London.
This year, for the second time, the queen has recorded a speech to the armed forces, which will air on the British Forces Broadcast Service radio network on Sunday, Christmas Eve.
The House of Windsor is not the only institution moving forward with new technologies. Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley — who already has his own blog — is helping bring the Roman Catholic Church deeper into the 21st century by offering downloadable Christmas video messages in three languages.
The messages (in English, Spanish and Portuguese) will be available Christmas Eve at Boston Catholic Television's revamped Web site, and will be the first of regular video messages from O'Malley available for downloading from the Internet in the new year.
The archdiocese is overhauling its newspaper and television Web sites; has assigned e-mail addresses to all priests, a handful of whom have resisted using computers; and has created an intranet site that officials expect will replace the monthly mailings to clergy.
O'Malley, a Capuchin Franciscan friar who has taken a vow of poverty and is a frequent critic of consumer culture, is emerging as an unlikely pioneer in the use of new technology.
"The cardinal wants us to utilize the tremendous tools that we have at our disposal and to expand the reach of those tools, so that we can bring the message of the church and the good works of the church to the Catholic community," archdiocese spokesman Terry Donilon said. "He clearly understands the power of the new media that is available, and he sees an opportunity for us to reach a much wider audience with these tools."
The Catholic Church is generally seen as being behind the curve when it comes to new media and technology.
There has been some resistance to technology in Catholic churches "because it distances you from the personal experience of the liturgy," said the Rev. John F. Baldovin, a specialist on Catholic liturgy.
Cardinalseansblog.org, the cardinal's Web log, is considered a hit by archdiocesan officials, who say they are getting positive feedback from around the world.