A mobile phone suspended on a belt round the waist or from the neck is a common sight among members of church congregations in Africa.
Now, church leaders are heaping praise on mobile phones, sometimes called cell phones, because they say the instruments help congregations grow.
Mobile phone use increased rapidly in Africa about 10 years ago. At that time, however, some Christians on the continent criticised the phones for being “marks of materialism.” Now, that has changed.
“It is as if cell phones have come to revolutionise everything, even Christianity,” says Anglican Bishop Charles Gaita of Nyahururu in central Kenya. “They are making things happen quickly.”