Thread: Useful 'Christian' apps Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


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Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
There now seem to be about a gazillion apps in the Apple app store, and almost as many in the Android app store, but finding anything useful is a hopeless task as the 'search' function is of the 'chocolate teapot' variety. So what 'Christian' apps are there that are genuinely useful?

There seem to be any number of copies of the Bible available and the mega-churches seem pretty good at putting out their own apps (mainly sermons, contact details and appeals for money). But what is there that folk would recommend as worthwhile additions to one's mobile device?

One of the few I have on my iPhone is myCofE, which I think ought to be useful, but mainly seems to be 'local' news from places that aren't local to me, so not much to get excited about.

What gives, app-wise?
 
Posted by Thurible (# 3206) on :
 
A couple on here.

Thurible
 
Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :
 
There's a free Daily Prayer app by James Porter for CW and BCP. It's OK, but I didn't specially like the look and feel of it, and it doesn't give access to the 'alternatives' which I often use. So I ended up just going to the relevant pages for MP, EP etc. and using the Safari "Add to home screen" feature on the iPhone.

The Bible apps are often free but you pay for your texts. Because I am already committed to Accordance on my computer it made sense to go with that. Previously I used Olive Tree's bible software on my Palm PDA. It was very good. It was a hard choice about which way to switch, but in the end Accordance's greater maturity on the main computer swung it for me. It has proved a good decision for me as many of the texts I had already invested in were simply upgradeable to the new version. I find the Accordance people very good to deal with. Bible Gateway and You Version have apps too. I think it's probably worth having at least one app that accesses online Bibles, but I need to be able to access Bibles when I'm offline too.

I have the myCofE app too. Your assessment is on the mark. It needs greater buy-in by the dioceses if it's going to be of interest to me - and maybe not even then.

I use Bible reading notes from BRF, and now have these as an app which works well for me. The price is similar to buying the books. There are occasional glitches, but it is well-supported, so they're usually sorted out fairly quickly.

On a somewhat different note, I have a free candle app, in case I want to 'light a candle' something - but it doesn't work alongside Morning Prayer for example as you have to choose whether to have the text or the candle on the screen!
 
Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :
 
Thurible, I can't access the link - probably due to firewall issues which I can't resolve without travelling. Any chance you might post the names?
 
Posted by Angloid (# 159) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
There's a free Daily Prayer app by James Porter for CW and BCP. It's OK, but I didn't specially like the look and feel of it, and it doesn't give access to the 'alternatives' which I often use. So I ended up just going to the relevant pages for MP, EP etc. and using the Safari "Add to home screen" feature on the iPhone.
The My CofE app includes this too. Not sure if it's the same version/layout.
 
Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :
 
The myCofE Daily Prayer pages are very like what you get with Safari on the iPhone. The print is a bit smaller, I think, because of the navigation bar at the bottom and the banner at the top.

Also it is only date sensitive and not time zone sensitive, so I think its reading my date but UK time. So although where I am ATM it's mid-morning (small hours of the morning in the UK), all it's offering me is Night Prayer for 12th October, when what I want is Morning Prayer. (Actually this seems odd to me. If you get to 3 am in the UK, is Night Prayer really the appropriate service? I don't know.) This also means I can't tell ATM whether in MP, for example, it will offer the option to use one of the Thanksgivings instead of the opening Canticle.

Now I am looking at it, I see that there is a link to my Diocese's website - there wasn't last time I looked (a long time ago). Unfortunately my diocesan website doesn't have a mobile version and the app doesn't seem to support rotating the screen.

As it has links to the CMS website as well as all the English dioceses, I wonder why USPG (now renamed "Us"!) is absent, and the ABC's website.

Having said all this, I expect the developer will respond to feedback, so I'm going to pass this information on.
 
Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :
 
iBreviary is pretty good, including not just the LotH for the day, but the Ordinary of the Mass, the Mass propers of the day, various traditional prayers and quite a few of the rites, including everything you'd need for a sick call.
 
Posted by Thurible (# 3206) on :
 
BroJames, it's the google cache of the electronic Aids for the office thread in oblivion. If i have chance to trawl through said quagmire over the weekend, i will.

Thurible

(Apologies for crap typing - new phone's keyboard isn't designed for the fat of thumb.)

[deleted duplicate posts]

[ 13. October 2013, 15:46: Message edited by: seasick ]
 
Posted by Vulpior (# 12744) on :
 
One recommendation, and a bit of commentary on how I use my tablet in church.

Olive Tree Bible and Maps app is on both my phone and iPad. It comes with some public domain texts, and you can buy more in-app. You can have it set to parole scroll through two texts, whether two versions or one bible and one commentary.

I use my iPad at church in preference to the mass booklet and pewsheet. This means having two apps that can display PDF files, as I haven't found it easy to switch back and forth in the same app. So I pull the pewsheet off the parish website and open it in iBooks, and have the order of service in Evernote; the parish office emails me when I ask for the new season's version.

There isn't an electronic version of our hymn book, so I take my own, pre-bookmarked for the day. I do pull up the bible during the sermon from time to time, especially to give context to OT histories or gospel passages.
 
Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :
 
Thanks, Thurible. Found it here: Electronic Aids to Praying the Office
 
Posted by Chapelhead (# 21) on :
 
TEC appears to be at least trying to do something a little different, but this App doesn't seem to be available in the App store (even switching to the US store). Has it been removed, or am I doing something wrong?
 
Posted by Wilfried (# 12277) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Chapelhead:
TEC appears to be at least trying to do something a little different, but this App doesn't seem to be available in the App store (even switching to the US store). Has it been removed, or am I doing something wrong?
It looks to me like the app is dead. They published one issue on the iPad, and then the whole thing disappeared. The content seems to have migrated here:

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/wayfarer/

So they put a lot of effort into an interesting project, but do nothing to publicize it or keep it going, and it dies on the vine. Sigh. Why is this the way of so many projects?

On a different note, while this isn't an app, this website offers American BCP79 Daily Offices with a plethora of options, and it's very mobile browser friendly. The only drawback is you can't use it offline.

http://www.haligweorc.org/breviary/
 
Posted by scribbler (# 12268) on :
 
There are quite a few options for the Daily Office in addition to what has already been mentioned. I have an iPhone and like to have them available for liturgy on a moment's notice!

• iPray has a nice interface and offers 1662 BCP offices, with midday and compline prayers from the Canadian BCP. I believe it's free, and is a good resource for traditional offices.

• I just downloaded the free "Common Prayer" app, which is a convenient, free little browser for the online daily prayer resources. I think I'm going to like using the Common Worship material.

• Mission St. Claire has its own free app for their version of the 1979 BCP offices.

• The PCUSA offers a Daily Prayer app at a modest price, with has a nice interface for quick offices that seem to be based on the 1979 BCP.

• The Episcopal Church as its own Electronic Common Prayer app, but I find it a little clunky and probably not worth the (high by app standards) price if you are just going to be using the offices. Perhaps on-the-go clergy would have more use for it.

• I don't believe anyone has mentioned the Universalis app, which is not cheap, but includes everything you need for the RC Liturgy of the Hours (no internet connection required after installation).
 
Posted by Nick Tamen (# 15164) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by scribbler:
• The PCUSA offers a Daily Prayer app at a modest price, with has a nice interface for quick offices that seem to be based on the 1979 BCP.
It is based on Daily Prayer as found in the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (1993). The BCW is, of course, influenced by the BCP and other sources.
 
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :
 
If you are in England, and have an electronic diary, you can download the CW and BCP lectionaries and collects for this year, and as of the last few days, next year, here. You follow the links to the year you want and then follow the instructions.

It may well be that you can access this elsewhere, but you will have the CofE calendar, not your own.

You can also download any bits of Common Worship you want in pdf from here , and pray with the church here . I think the latter is the link most of the Apps link to.
 
Posted by american piskie (# 593) on :
 
But lately come to the new technology it seems to me that Dr Cranmer[1] must be rotating in his grave.

There are nice simple Apps to let one pray the (Roman) Office (as long as one has the Our Father by heart one can start at the beginning and read to the end), but as far as I can see everything offered by the C of E overwhelms one with choice and rubrical comment. And for some reason the Android apps have been suppressed.

Poor show, I reckon; definitely a missed chance.


[1] Moreover, the number and hardness of the Rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the Service, was the cause, that to turn the Book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out.
 
Posted by Nick Tamen (# 15164) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by american piskie:
There are nice simple Apps to let one pray the (Roman) Office (as long as one has the Our Father by heart one can start at the beginning and read to the end), but as far as I can see everything offered by the C of E overwhelms one with choice and rubrical comment. And for some reason the Android apps have been suppressed.
That's one reason I like the PC(USA) Daily Prayer app mentioned above. There are no choices* or things to look up—just open the app, pick the correct time of day if necessary (it should open to the correct time of day) and start reading. All the psalms, readings and the like are there.


* One can go into settings and choose to omit any portion of the office from what is shown, or choose ELLC or "Tudor" language, but those are one-time or as-desired choices, not choices that have to be made each time one prays.
 
Posted by Thurible (# 3206) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by scribbler:

• iPray has a nice interface and offers 1662 BCP offices, with midday and compline prayers from the Canadian BCP. I believe it's free, and is a good resource for traditional offices.

As a matter of course, I use the Daily Service Book (BCP+1922 lectionary) and downloaded iPray for Android to save taking my book on the bus. It’s not the 1662 BCP – the Venite is wrong; the second collect at Evensong is wrong; some of the Psalms are wrong. It might be the 1928 US BCP, I’m not sure but it ain’t the 1662.

It also lays out the readings in a really irritating way (verse by verse, a la the Psalms, rather than as readings) and I can’t work out a way to make the font bigger.

I’ve returned to my book.

Thurible
 
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on :
 
Four Devon churches are trialling an audio tour app. Information here.

As a church steward, I will be interested to see how many people I observe using this app in the coming season.
 
Posted by scribbler (# 12268) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Thurible:

I can’t work out a way to make the font bigger.

On the iPhone version at least, all you do to change text size is tap "Settings" in the lower right-hand corner and then drag the slider to the right to increase the font.

As a person who is both used to the 1928 BCP and not terribly picky about offices as long they flow well, I can't speak to the specific changes from the 1662 you mentioned. It certainly seems based on it overall, which is what the developers claim.

[ 07. November 2013, 18:24: Message edited by: scribbler ]
 
Posted by Wilfried (# 12277) on :
 
What's the best way to get an American BCP79 onto an iPad? For now, I'd like it mostly for reference purposes, rather than Daily Office reading, though a nice Daily Office app would be nice too.
 
Posted by pererin (# 16956) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Wilfried:
What's the best way to get an American BCP79 onto an iPad? For now, I'd like it mostly for reference purposes, rather than Daily Office reading, though a nice Daily Office app would be nice too.
Do PDF files work on fruit?
 
Posted by IngoB (# 8700) on :
 
On my iPhone I have (in no particular order):

I do not have, but am thinking of getting:

Any other recommendations are most welcome.
 
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by IngoB:
On my iPhone I have (in no particular order):
[list]
...
[*]Confession (£1.49), basically an examination of conscience note-taker that stores your sin count safely; ...
Sounds a bit like this.
 
Posted by IngoB (# 8700) on :
 
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
Sounds a bit like this.
No, it doesn't. It sounds a bit like this. Though frankly, I mostly bought it because it is the only app with a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur. A sort of Catholic geek curiosity buy...
 
Posted by Panda (# 2951) on :
 
I recently found the whole NRSV bible with apocrypha, free, for Android. No internet connection needed once you download.
 


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