Laying on of cell phone

Old-time religion met newfangled technology last week when a hospital-bound minister at a Brooklyn Heights church was installed in a 1,000-year-old ceremony - by cell phone.

The Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O'Neill was installed as the new minister of the 175-year-old First Unitarian Church last Sunday in an event that drew nearly 400 people from around the area and across the country, including Borough President Marty Markowitz.

The only person who didn't make the religious installation, in fact, was O'Neill himself. He was being treated for a fractured toe by doctors at Long Island College Hospital, but he agreed to take his vows by cell phone.

" It may be a first," said O'Neill from his hospital bed. "Unitarians are kind of famous for loving innovations anyway, so now here we are, working with a technological innovation.

" It definitely could be a first," he added.

Well I guess I have heard being a minister is a call. So if you lose your vocation is that a dropped call.

You also have to have a real good cell phone provider to make sure you can hear that still small voice. God does keep telling all of us "Can you hear me now."