God is Christlike

Today is the feast of St John the Evangelist. Over the Christmas period the words of the first chapter of his Gospel are read often, explaining the incarnation: ‘The Word became flesh’. John focusses very much on the theme of love and he calls himself  ‘the disciple Jesus loved’. He shares with us in his Gospel and in his epistles this message of being loved for who we are, not for what we do or for avoiding sin, but simply because we are. Jesus loved sinners when he lived on earth and he reached out to them with his message of love, not condoning their sin but not condemning them because of it either. This is Good News for us all.

The readings for today are Psalm 117, 1 John 1, John 21:19b-end and the reflection I gave at the 10.30pm SLT service is below.

 

Christmas online – Nativity and more

Christmas is a busy time in churches throughout the world, and our cathedral in Second Life is no exception. Since Advent, Mary and Joseph have travelled around to various homes and churches in SL and on Christmas Eve returned to Epiphany Island to stay in our stable. We had a special Nativity service in which we welcomed Mary and Joseph and remembered all those who had given them hospitality over the previous 25 nights: Hazey Bigbear, Cephus Levee, Rocky Vallejo, Bunneh Byron, Grizzy Griswold, Coy Weatherwax, Petronella Piers, Lelani Carver, Harper Ganesvoort, Chaz Longstaff, Sara Toxx, psimagus Hax, ZoeRose Eiren, Medhi Bury, Markus Pexington, Graham Clarrington, Pelagius Friend, Cyrano Swansong, Skye Lewellen, Illendel Foulsbane, Mateo12 Michigan, Neill Loxingly, Charlie12string Lax, dove Redyard and Cady Enoch. There is now a book of photos from the Posada and the Nativity scene is in the garden if anyone wishes to visit.

Our Christmas services have not yet finished as we are having a special service with a reflection at noon SLT today. I hope that some of our community can join together to worship at this time.

Meanwhile, I wish you every blessing this Christmas season as we remember how God chose to come to earth to live as one of us, so that we might know him better and experience the joy of knowing what it is to be his children.

 

Gifted

Christmas is drawing near and in this last week of Advent the focus is on Mary, the young Jewish girl who made the whole Christian story possible by saying ‘Yes’ to God. On Tuesday her hymn or psalm of praise was the Gospel reading, as given to us by Luke. In it she praises God for all that he has done and will do. She acknowledges her part in God’s plan and that this will make her known for generations to come. She was not speaking out of pride but out of humility, accepting the gift God had given her. In my reflection I looked at what that means for us.

The readings were Psalm 113, 1 Samuel 1:24-end, Luke 1:46-56.

 

The Holy Ghost in the Machine

One of the features of being involved in an online church is the interest it attracts from researchers and writers, who all want their questions answered. It can be very interesting to find out just what people are asking about our ministry, how they view it, what misconceptions there are and so on.

Often those who are looking for answers come in world and talk to the people there, and that is probably by far the best way to get a range of perspectives. If time is short, the Leadership Team is usually approached with a list of questions and we do our best to give answers which give a flavour of what we do and what it means to our members.

As a result of one such request, there is now an excellent article in Wired magazine about online churches, which features St Pixel’s and the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life. Do have a read and post a comment if you feel inclined. It will help fill out the picture for the readers, though I think that Martyn Casserly did an excellent job in the tight word limit.

You will find the article, Virtual Christmas – The Holy Ghost in the Machine, here

 

Carols and Thriller

On Sunday the Anglican Cathedral held not one, but two Nine Lessons and Carols services. I suppose one was technically on Saturday in SL terms, but for those attending, it was Sunday. In the services we heard of God’s plan to redeem the human race by sending his Son to be born on earth as a baby and to grow up in the same way as we all do. The final reading was John 1:1-14. That reading has sent shivers down my spine since I first knowingly heard it in a school Christmas event. Having it in the King James version simply added to the atmosphere for me.

Most who were with us this Sunday found the services very moving. We had carols from various sources on video but lag or technical limitations meant that some people couldn’t watch so I am giving a list of links here with the readings to which they related. Perhaps for those who didn’t make it, this will give something of a flavour.

 

A boring list?

The New Testament begins in a way that would put most people off reading further if it were a novel. Matthew presents us with a long list of the ancestors of Jesus, unpronouceable names of people long dead, many of whom we have never heard of. Why would he do that? Did he want to send his readers to sleep? Looking deeper, there is more to it than that. An apparently boring list has a lot to tell  us.

The readings on Thursday were Genesis 49:2, 8-10, Psalm 72:1-5, 18-19, Matthew 1:1-17. The reflection I gave is reproduced below.

 

Christmas on Epiphany Island 2009

Dear Friends,

The Cathedral community has been busy preparing for the upcoming Christmas services.  This weekend we will hold two festive services of Lessons & Carols, and are planning special services for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Please stop by if you can for these services, and/or to take a look around at the island.

I’ve taken a few pictures of island decked out for Christmas, which I have uploaded to a Flickr set that you can view here. Special thanks to Caoilin Galthie and Bunneh Byron for their special contributions to our island!

On behalf of the Leadership Team and the Anglicans of Second Life community, I wish you all a blessed Christmas season!

Cady

 

Simple changes

On Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, the focus is on John the Baptist. In the Gospel of Luke, John gave very practical advice to those who came to him and wanted to know how to live their lives better. He didn’t pretend that they were perfect, nor did he ask them to do the impossible. It’s the same for us today. Behind the masks we all wear, there are many imperfections but we are not asked to do the impossible.

The readings on Sunday were Philippians 4:4-7 and Luke 3:7-18. The reflection from the service is given below.

 

A Cathedral Christmas

We’re looking forward to having plenty of opportunities to meet together and worship at this special Christmas season. Normal services will continue but there are also special services planned.

 

Are you the one?

Advent is a time of expectation, of looking towards the coming of Christ. Expectation can be exciting, enhancing an experience, but if the expectation is too rigid it can blind us to seeing something that doesn’t quite fit. John the Baptist expected Jesus to act as the Messiah, he had pointed him out to other people, but maybe as time went on it seemed to him that Jesus was not as he had anticipated. He sent his disciples to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come?’

The readings at the Thursday 2pm service were Isiah 41:13-20, Psalm 145:1, 8-13, Matthew 11:11-15. The reflection from the service follows.