Christian Mission to a Virtual World
April 15th, 2008
In May I am heading off to the UK for a meeting hosted by the Bishop of Guildford that will discuss in some detail the ministry I am involved with in the virtual world of Second Life. I have written a background paper for the meeting, ‘Christian Mission to a Virtual World’ that can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.
Christian Mission to a Virtual World (1528)
Filed under Anglican, Second Life Church, Virtual Reality, Web 2.0 | |
10 Responses to “Christian Mission to a Virtual World”
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[…] April 16, 2008 Christian Mission to a Virtual World Paper Posted by Mark Brown under From Arkin | Tags: “second life”, Anglican, church plant, mission, Virtual Reality | In May I am heading off to the UK for a meeting hosted by the Bishop of Guildford that will discuss in some detail the Anglican ministry in SL. I have written a background paper for the meeting, ‘Christian Mission to a Virtual World’ that can be downloaded by visiting my blog by CLICKING HERE. […]
Mark -
This is excellent: just what I hoped you’d produce! A taster, with solid references and research behind it. I think it will be very useful. Thanks, mate!
-MikeCamel.
(Mike Bursell)
Thanks much, Mark. It’s printing out right now. Go with God, my friend…p
Mark,
This paper looks very good, and I will read it with interest.
I am from the same part of the RL world as Mike as well.
Don’t know yet if I am free on May 25th to meet you in Guildford, UK, but would like to if I can.
I popped into the Bible Study last night, and it was packed! Which is brilliant!
All the best in Him.
Tony Gibbs
- SL TonyG Trefoil
[…] ages I have been banging on about the next stage of the net quite possibly being virtual (for more click here) which in practice would be about entering a website in its three dimensional form rather than just […]
A very useful and interesting paper although I have my doubts about some of the statistics.
For me I cannot see any SL church replacing RL church, except in a limited sense for those unable to attend in RL. I see our group mainly as an opportunity for existing Christians to make contact with each other and with non-Christians.
Probably the best things in the group at present are the discussion groups. The services to me are problematical; the technology is getting in the way of worship, but maybe that can be sorted out. They do provide an opportunity for intercessions, however.
I remain to be convinced that we can meaningfully administer the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion without the key elements being physically present with both celebrant and recipient (but I’m no theologian). I can see possibilities for some of the other sacraments, notably confession (which has indeed been offered).
I believe our group should be fully inclusive, only taking disciplinary action against those who disrupt or are abusive. You address the matters of order and authority in a good Anglican way, but in the end the only power our authorities have is that which comes from above (ie. from the Lindens, of course).
I hope to be at Guildford, so I look forward to finding out if some of you guys and gals are as good-looking in RL as you are in SL.
Greetings Kris, Thanks for your comment. When you say,
‘The services to me are problematical; the technology is getting in the way of worship’ can you expand? Also what suggestions do you have?
Hi Mark. The main problem I find in the worship is getting the sound. I usually find myself fiddling around with controls to get the volume right and having to move my camera almost on top of you to get acceptable voicechat. The streaming audio usually has hiccups, like being repeated in part and sometimes wrong speed with squeaky voices.
Probably part of the problem is my unfamiliarity with the buttons, but certainly not all.
I do find the typed responses a bit of a distraction, all that copying and pasting. Nowadays, once the service has started and I see that others are responding I only do the AMENs. I would like to see some way of capping responses so that once one has been printed out the rest are muted. I wonder if that is possible.
I hope that helps.
[…] the virtual option. Now regulars of my blog will know I am a big fan of the virtual platform (click here for background) but the number one barrier is access. To use it you have to download the […]
[…] For more background info see: Christian Mission to a Virtual World. […]