The Anglican Cathedral of Second Life

On Tuesday at our 2pm service, we remembered Peter Chanel who was martyred on the South Pacific island of Futuna in 1841. His death led to the whole island converting to Christianity. The readings were Psalm 31:1-5, 16, Acts 7:51-8.1, John 6:35-40.

Peter Chanel was the first martyr of the South Pacific. The reading from Acts tells of the very first Christian martyr, Stephen. Read on to learn more.

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We live in a world that bombards us with words, millions of them on the internet for us to read and millions more to listen to via various media. Words are great for sharing our thoughts and opinions, and our faith, but words alone are not enough.

On Sunday the reflection looked at the need for us to walk the talk of our faith if we hope to make a difference in the world. The readings were psalm 4, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36-48.

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April 21st 2009 was the 900th anniversary of the death of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. In honour of his memory, all the prayers used in the service at 2pm SLT were written by Anselm.

The readings for the day were Psalm 93, Acts 4:32-end and John 3:7-15. The phrase which really captured my imagination in these readings was ‘the wind blows where it chooses’. Read on to find out more.

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Rev Mark writes:

In my sermon this past weekend in the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life I talked about the game, the trap of being drawn into believing that personal success is related to how many people are involved in our ministry. Big numbers = success. But what was Jesus’ approach to ministry followers?

Listen to this 12 minute message by me to find out.
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If you would like to subscribe to my messages via iTunes head to: iTunes.

Greetings all!

Now that the flurry of Easter activity has subsided a bit, time to catch my breath and give you all an update on what the Leadership Team has been up to, and while I’m at it, hopefully some insight in to how the LT does what we do!

Of course, the biggest update lately has been Rev. Mark’s announcement of his intent to step down from the Team this June, due to the increasing time demands in other areas of his life.  He will retain his current role and duties until June 14, and we are working closely with him to make the transition as smooth as possible.  As was noted in the Team response to his statement of intent to retire, we continue to work with the RL church representatives on forming our constitution, which in part addresses the formal governance structure of our ministry.  As soon as we have the opportunity to consult with them and finalize a few points, we will update you on our future plans.  And, of course, ask for your feedback!  We on the LT are truly committed to making this a collaborative effort with our community.

On a related note, we continue with our analysis of the recent community survey.  A big thanks go to Arundel Dragonash and Snerbert Sands for the data analysis they have worked on from the online survey.  Our next step is to work through the more qualitative bits from this survey, then on to analysis of the chat logs from our survey forums and the individual interviews that Helene conducted.  Over the coming weeks expect to see updates on this process on this blog.

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Greetings!

Below is the first part of our report on our recent feedback program on the Anglican Ministry in SL.

Please post any questions below in comments!

God bless,

Leadership Team.

Demographic data collected from the online survey

April 20, 2009

About the Respondents (this survey is anonymous)
354 members in-world since 1-1-2009 (as of 4-19-2009, 6:00 am SLT)
41 respondents to the survey
11.58% response

Q.1
How long have you been involved in the Anglican Group in SL?

Raw responses* – # Respondents:
since the beginning – 4
30 months – 1
29 months – 1
24 months – 2
20 months – 1
18 months – 3
15 months – 1
13 months – 3
12 months – 4
9 months – 1
8 months – 1
6 months – 4
4 months – 1
3 months – 2
2 months – 1
1 month – 2
0.5 month – 2
0 month – 1
*Raw responses have been standardized to months or “since the beginning”

Measures of Central Tendency
Average: 13.2months
Longer than average: 12 respondents
Less than average: 21 respondents
Range: “1 day” to “since the beginning”
Mode: (tri-modal) 6 months,
12 months, and
“since the beginning”
Median: 12 months

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The following is a statement given by the Rev. Mark Brown (Arkin Ariantho) at the April 18 worship service at the Anglican Cathedral in SL:

Greetings in the name of our Lord,

This June will signify two and a half years of founding the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life and two years of offering worship services. Over that time we have grown to seven services, a discussion group, Bible Study and numerous fellowship, prayer and counseling encounters around the virtual Cathedral. And over that time the leadership of the ministry has matured into a robust and impressive leadership team.

The time has come for me to retire from active involvement in the Second Life Anglican ministry.  The plan is to remain involved in an advisory capacity. On the 14th of June I will be stepping down from the leadership team, leading services and in being involved in the day to day operations.  This decision is brought about due to increasing time pressures in my personal and professional life including a growing family and new responsibilities within my work and ministries.  I want to assure you that the ministry of the Anglican Cathedral in the virtual world will continue to flourish in this time of transition and beyond, under the expert guidance of the leadership team.

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When we look at the events that took place after Good Friday, there is a huge collection of pieces of evidence that Jesus has risen and is alive, albeit alive in a way that allows him to walk into locked rooms at will. Why were so many opportunities given for the disciples to get to grips with the resurrection?

In my reflection given in the service in the Anglican Cathedral last night, I explored this further. The readings were Psalm 8, Acts 3:11-end, Luke 24:35-48.

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Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, points out the risk of Christians being objects of pity, in fact being the most pitied people around. Did he think that because they were denied the hedonistic lifestyle of those around them, because their choice of meat for the menu might have to avoid that sacrificed to idols, or because of some other limitation placed on them by their faith?

Find out by reading the sermon preached in the Cathedral on April 14th. The readings for the day were Psalm 136, Exodus 12:14-36, 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

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Christ is risen! At the Easter Sunday service in the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life, Rev Mark preached on the enormously stunning news that we are truly forgiven. He teased out what this practically mean for us. Check it out! To listen press play below. (12 minutes in length)
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