The Anglican Church gets a Second Life

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BORN AGAIN: Mark Brown's Second life persona as seen inside the virtual cathedral.
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Online virtual world Second Life has a new player - the Anglican Church.

A medieval Anglican cathedral was built in the popular role-playing site five weeks ago and the church started holding services last month.

The idea is the brainchild of Bible Society NZ chief executive Mark Brown. Brown said Second Life had news channels and universities operating within it, but no church. He saw the venture as an opportunity to reach the virtual world's 8million strong population.

The church has over 150 members and holds Sunday services three times during the day to accommodate different time zones.

"Just a few months ago we had five members and it was just a vision, but it seems to have captured people's imagination," he said.

"People are coming to try it out and we are getting some slow building, within 4 to 6 weeks we will have to turn people away."

A prerecorded sermon streams into members' computers for the virtual services and people can interact and pray.

"People are very warm towards it and there's a wonderful peace about it," said Brown. Any member of the Second Life population could wander in off the street for confessional or to speak to one of the community's 10 priests who counseled people with problems in both their real and online lives, he said.

Brown said some people were concerned about the pornography and other negative activities going on in Second Life.

"They say, "what is the church doing there?" and I say, "what's the church not doing there?" We should be there, that's our place," he said.

Plans for the future include an online bible world where people can visit virtual scenes from the holy book and watch videos to hear and experience the stories.

"That's right at the cutting edge, it's a big vision in my mind and we have some staff working on it," Brown said.

Dean of the Christchurch Cathedral, Very Rev Peter Beck, said any opportunity for people to explore their faith was a good thing.

"My hope would be that it would lead people to want to explore these questions in their first life as well."

John Day, vicar of St Barnabas Church in Fendalton, said creating an online Anglican community was a terrific idea.

"But there's no substitute for face to face interaction and attending church." His church had been using technology such as websites, texting and Bebo to communicate with its younger members for some time, he said.

"I think it's a step in the right direction to encourage people to be part of church and learn more."

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- © Fairfax NZ News