The Saturday Message, this week with the Rev JOHN CREE, Rector of Chorley

I DON'T know why, but I just can't do it. I know that every child over four-years-old can. But I can't.

I will just have to wait for my daughter to come and rescue me. I am sure it will be very simple to correct the fault. My daughter will simply push a few buttons on the front of the remote control panel and it will work perfectly again.

Until then I will have to continue pressing the button for Channel 4 to get BBC1 reception, and that for Channel 3 to get BBC2.

I have the same problem with mobile phones. Not that I want them to access television programmes. I just want to be able to telephone in an emergency.

Instead, before I can dial, I have to negotiate an obstacle course of options as my (inexpensive) mobile phone offers to perform a huge range of fascinating and (to me) totally useless functions - none of which I can access even if I wanted to.

Perhaps it's just my age, but it seems to me that the more complicated an apparatus is to operate, the less effective or useful that apparatus is.

You would have thought I could master some of this new equipment. I was trained as an engineer. I joined the Royal Navy at 16 as an artificer apprentice and served in the Fleet Air Arm. Perhaps it is simply that with machinery you can physically see how it operates.

If the machine is malfunctioning your eyes and hands can work out what is wrong. Sometimes even a good kick can get things working again.

Not so with micro electric equipment.There are no moving parts to fiddle around with -- nothing to twist, poke or hammer.

Their functioning remains a mystery to me.

But if I think deeply about life and this marvellous universe in which we live, it is all mystery. The simplest and most effective response to the deep mysteries of life is to accept them as a gift from God.

Meanwhile let me see if I can get Channel 4!