The Anglican Cathedral of Second Life

At the 2pm service yesterday the Gospel passage contained Jesus’ advice to build our lives on his words, actually doing as he says. In this way we build a solid base for our lives, like building a house on rock. When storms come, as they inevitably will, we will survive the experience rather than being destroyed by it. In my sermon I shared how this had worked out in practice for me at a difficult time in my life.

The readings were Genesis 16:1-12, 15, 16, Psalm 106:1-5, Matthew 7:21-end.

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Many families have their rules which are taught to children very early in life. Remember Thumper in the film ‘Bambi’: ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.’ These early lessons are internalised and determine our behaviour as adults.

Hillel and the book of Tobit advise people not to do to others what they wouldn’t want to have done to them. Typically, Jesus turns this around to create the Golden Rule: Do to others what you would like them to do to you. This is a much more challenging proposition.

The readings were Genesis 13:2, 5-end, Psalm 15, Matthew 7:12-14. The sermon follows.

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As I noted in my recent post about the leadership transition at the Cathedral, we continue to have the interest and support of those bishops of the Anglican Communion who have been working with us on formalizing our standing within the wider church.  There will be a follow up meeting to discuss these matters  held in the UK in July.

Part of this work will involve taking a look at the theological issues surrounding the expression of Christianity in virtual worlds.  We have gotten off to a great start with Rev. Mark’s blog post on the conversation about virtual sacraments.  Below are some of the other questions that have arisen so far.

We would really like feedback from the community on these questions, and want to know what questions you have that we haven’t thought of yet!  I encourage you to share you comments here!!

• What do you think are the most important questions facing Christians in Second Life?
• What harms us spiritually in SL?
• What can help heal us, help us and help us understand the gospel in SL?
• To what extent does online life and culture allow us to behave in ways that would not be acceptable in RL?
• What do you think are the most important theological questions facing the Anglican Cathedral in SL?
• What does it mean for the cathedral to be Anglican?
• What can you do in a RL church that you cannot do in a SL church?
• Are we really “gathered” when we meet online?
• What is the function of a virtual place of worship?
• What is the relationship between worship in a RL faith community and worship within SL?
• What is the role, if any, of evangelism in SL?

One of the key challenges with online worship is how to incorporate the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is a physical experience from witnessing the act to receiving bread and wine.  But it is also a spiritual experience in that the key action is invisible, caused by God who acts within the liturgy.   So would it be possible to have a virtual communion, a virtual sacrament?

The Revd Professor Paul S. Fiddes, who is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Oxford and Director of Research, Regent’s Park College, has just written a very interesting short paper called Sacraments in a Virtual World?

Rev. Mark has posted this paper on his blog here.  Your thoughts are welcome!

Instead of attending the noon service at the Cathedral today, I had been asked by Daniel Arbizu of Internetchurch to preach there. Problems in SL meant that no one could get to Epiphany Island and the Cathedral. A quick conversation between Gareth Janus who was due to lead at the Cathedral, Daniel and myself, led to everyone being encouraged to gather an Internetchurch. It was a wonderful chance to share in worship together.

The reading was from Mark 4:35-41. The sermon I preached follows.

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The Lord’s Prayer is well known to so many people, even some who have not been to church for many years. It is the pattern for prayer that Jesus gave us and can teach us how to pray. It can also be used as a prayer to recite, though the danger is that we say it without thinking about the words if we are too familiar with it. In our services in the Anglican Cathedral of SL, we have shared this prayer together using several languages, as we did in the 2pm SLT service yesterday. It’s a reminder of the worldwide family for whom this is the family prayer, the prayer we address to our Daddy God.

The readings were Psalm 111, 2 Corinthians 11:1-11, Matthew 6:7-15. Thank you to Cephus for reading for us.

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The cake and punch are gone, and Rev. Mark has retired from his position as AoSL group leader.  BUT this does not mean an end to the Saturday evening (8 p.m. SLT) service!  This service, designed to meet the needs of the Pacific Rim community, will now be led by Australian community member LouiB Serendipity (Liz Way in RL).

Liz is a fairly new member of the SL community, but an old friend of Rev. Mark, whom she met while studying Theology at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.  She currently makes her home on the east coast in Goulburn Western NSW Australia with her husband Terry.  For more information on Liz, check out her blog at http://spiritchat.wordpress.com/.

Jesus spent much of his time teaching people, trying to help them to understand God’s will as revealed in Scripture. He looked at the issue of murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation and finally the treatment of enemies in Chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel. The Law of mercy and justice had become distorted in interpretation to one of vegeance. Jesus brings it back to a matter of love. The chapter finishes with a challenge: Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The readings were Psalm 146, 2 Corninthians 8:1-9, Matthew 5:38-42.

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The community had another chance to say farewell to our priest-in-charge, the Revd Mark Brown, at the noon service today. A wonderful crowd attended and had the opportunity to offer prayers of blessing on Mark for his future. Mark will not be gone from SL or from the Cathedral but he will be more in the background now. The Leadership Team have now taken over the running of the ministry of AoSL.

The topic of the sermon was life and death, something that features highly in our Christian lives and which is particularly relevant at this time of endings and beginnings. The readings were Psalm 20, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Mark 4:26-34. The readings were given by Rev and Bonnie. Thank you both.

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From Rev Mark Brown:
Well this is my last blog post here on the Ang. Cath blog! I started this blog a couple of years ago to resource the ministry and it has done that well.

If you would like to stay in touch, subscribe to my blog over at: http://brownblog.info/

Check out the 6 min. vid highlight from my farewell service at the Anglican Cathedral of Second Life.. (Helene was amazing! And thanks to the Leadership Team.. wonderful service.)