After all this writing on my blog and research about cyberchurches, I had never actually experienced one myself, until last night that is. I mentioned in a previous post that I was invited to an online service by 'Pen'. Well, I attended one of the services at St. Pixels and made a few notes as I did.
I arrived slightly before the 9pm, when the service was scheduled to begin. Everyone was waiting in the 'lobby' section of the program welcoming each other. As soon as I entered the room I received a barrage of 'hellos' and so quickly introduced myself (without saying I was taking notes for this blog of course). At 9pm, some (recordings of) bells sounded and everyone was invited into the 'sanctuary'. There were 11 of us at this time.
The service started with line upon line of text from the leader of the service (a member called grulp in this instance) welcoming everyone and thanking the Lord for allowing the service to take place. Whenever the preacher would type anything in CAPS, everyone else would repeat by typing the same in talk box (this was usually an AMEN every so often). I received a number of 'private messages' (ones that only I would see and so wouldn't interfere with the service) from other users asking if I was being looked after, which I felt was rather courteous. It's clear that the people who attend this service are regulars and so have developed a communal bond.
The next part of the service was a hymn. They did this by playing the music and scrolling the lyrics to it in time, expecting you to sing along with it. However, when you are sitting alone at your computer, you will also be singing alone, as other members of the congregation can not hear you (everyone can only hear the preacher). I wondered whether anyone was actually singing the hymn. I did give it a go but ultimately just felt very self-conscious and a little bit silly. Until the technology has advanced so that people at separate computers can sing together, this part of the service does not do the rest of it justice.
After the hymn a live audio reading from the book of Matthew was done by the leader of the service, along with slides in the top corner (see picture above). This part of the service was quite similar to a 'real' service--I did try closing my eyes to see if it felt like a real church and it certainly did have a resemblance. Once the reading had finished and another hymn was sung, the congregation were allowed to write any prayers or messages they wanted to share. It was at this point that I regretted having chosen my username of 'Joyous Beast' (a username that I have chosen for everything that I have signed up for on the Internet since I was 13) since many were writing messages such as 'and pray for our new member Joyous Beast' where as most of the other members had simple names such as Margaret or Isabelle. The service then finished with the Lord's Prayer.
Overall, I did enjoy the service and I can now see the appeal of it. Although the hymns did not really seem necessary, the rest of the service was performed very well. Many also stayed after the service to chat to one another, so there have definitely been some friends made through this church.
This is me (my character on Second Life - Christopher Xenobuilder) outside one of the mosques on IslamOnline.net Island.
After seeing one of the churches in my previous posts I decided to have a look at some places of worship that are on Second Life. I registered myself, downloaded the software and after spending ages getting used to the controls (this is not my usual sort of thing), I had a little
meander around the parallel cyberworld (taking screenshots of course for your benefit!).
Here I am standing outside the ALM CyberChurch (click on the images to see a larger version).
And here's what it is like inside the ALM CyberChurch. Unfortunately, they were not having a service while I was there but apparently they have a number of them including Bible study meetings.
I also decided to go have a look at the LifeChurch.tv one since I have done a previous post mentioning it. This one was the largest of the places that I visited (I don't know if that requires any more effort but I thought it was worth pointing out), and probably the one with the neatest design too.
Here I am at the Kamasutra Temple, having a little dance by myself since that's apparently most of what you can do there (although a range of dances were available to try!). They also had what they called 'Cuddling Rooms' but insisted that there should be no sex in there at all.
And finally, here I am inside a church simply called Elvindale. If you look to your right you'll see that I am actually chained upside down taking part in something called 'Sacrifice' where a constant river (I'm assuming of blood since it's red) gushes over me. Quite what it represented was not made clear at any point.
My Observations
The first thing that I noticed was the vastness of Second Life. There are literally thousands of places of worship that you can go to. Quite who has the time to design this buildings, because they do look very impressive when you're walking around them, is a mystery to me. And also, do they gain anything from doing this or is it simply for the joy of seeing people use your creation for their religious purposes?
The second thing that I noticed is that there was not a single other person there when I visited all these places of worship (I visited others that I did not screenshot). Every church, temple or whatever I sauntered around was empty. So from my experience, this business of online worship, really has not taken off at all yet.
And I can see why, especially on Second Life. It is a game. It feels like a game. It looks like a game. It is not somewhere you would want to go to say a meaningful prayer or perform a religious act. It just has the feeling that it was designed for fun, which it succeeded in doing for the short time that I was on it (although I doubt it could become a regular habit for me, I have enough going on in the real world). Or perhaps I am judging too quickly here, maybe when you're part of a community worshipping it feels different--when you can talk to others around you that you're familiar with. Or perhaps when you are worshipping in the online version of your usual offline church? But then again, I just can't see it.
I've decided it's finally time to try out one of these online churches for myself. The one that I am going to start with is one that seems to crop up a lot when I'm researching cyberchurches, and that's St. Pixels. Their vision is:
- to create a sacred space, a welcoming and witnessing community on the internet.
- to make disciples by providing opportunities for theological reflection, discussion and exploration
- to proclaim Christ through the use of the Internet and related technologies
The main hub of the site is the online church--which they call St. Pixels Live. After downloading some java program you can access the church from your computer (it automatically installs a shortcut on your desktop!!! A little bit invasive for my liking!!!) You can then either register or log in as a guest; I decided to register since this is the only way to receive the full features of the program. After selecting my sex (male) and creating a personal avatar for myself, I finally entered the church.
However, I was a bit disappointed. The 'church' was not really a church but a slightly modified chat room, where different rooms are just labelled after different parts of a church i.e. the porch, the sanctuary and for some reason the bar. My initial feeling was also that this was a place for children--everything was decorated with bright colours and the cartoon avatars which just look bizarre and not in keeping with my idea of 'church-like'. Also, there was the problem that there was no one in the church except for me! That is, until Pen arrived...
According to Pen's profile she loves firelight and looking at the stars. Also, apparently her occupation is 'absolute lunatic'. Despite her peculiar profile Pen was very nice and told me the site was a very friendly community with kind and supportive folks and recommended times to come back for worship… which I did, but that is a story for another post!
A potential benefit of online church is that it can be a place to go for those who feel they do not belong in a traditional church, or they have been rejected by a traditional church. An online church can be the perfect place for like-minded individuals who do not want to be part of a mainstream culture to meet.
An example of this is the Ulfilas Project. According to their web site, the Ulfilas Project aims to translate the word of God for contemporary Gothic culture. They have set up a church in Second Life – an online 3D world that is created by those who use it – called St Hilda’s.
The project was started by a man named Craig Gilman, or Ulfilas Graves as he is known on Second Life. In real life, he works at Birmingham Cathedral reaching out to a younger generation. In an interview with the BBC News web site he said:
"Actually there are a lot of Christian Goths out there but sometimes they keep it quiet because they are often not accepted by the church. A lot of people who have joined our group say they feel it is a haven because it’s the first church service where its been accepted for them to be who they are – a goth and they felt it was somewhere they could call home as a church, which I was amazed at considering it’s a virtual service."
Although I am not sure the reasons why Goths may not be accepted into a church service I would hazard a guess that it is mainly due to appearance--the usual all black attire may not be deemed acceptable. Or perhaps Goths are often associated with Satanism?
The services that take place in the church would come under the definition of Goth liturgy – contemporary gothic music is played and specially adapted readings are performed (to read an example of Goth liturgy used at St Edward King and Martyr church in Cambridge click here).
It seems this online church has got a lot of online attention from users who reside in