A conference called ‘Christianity in the Digital Space‘ will take place at St John’s College, Durham, England from 13th -15th July. This conference is trying to answer all sorts of questions such as what discipleship looks like in a digital world and what the church may look like as a result of us being in a digital age.

Sixty Christians who are engaged with online ministry will listen to keynote speeches from Rt Rev NT Wright, Bishop of Durham; Mark Brown (Arkin Ariantho in SL), CEO of Bible Society in NZ; Andrew Graystone, Director of the Churches’ Media Council. There will also be short talks given by practitioners including Mark Howe of St Pixel’s, Pam Smith of i-church, and me, Ailsa Wright (Helene Milena in SL) of AoSL.

Discussion will take the form of group conversations on matters such as how the Bible relates to the digital age, opportunities for evangelism online, whether there is a distinctive spirituality associated with Christianity online. Other topics will arise as a result of the talks which will highlight issues that are being faced and any difficulties or learning that have resulted.

As befits the topic, the conference will be equipped with wifi internet access throughout. This allows for delegates to introduce their online ministries. For the Anglican Cathedral it also means that our service at 2pm SLT on Tuesday will be led from the conference. I hope as many people as possible will be able to attend so that delegates can get a feel for what online worship in our Cathedral is like. There should be several people logged on using their laptops so you may find a few new or unfamiliar avs around but I’m sure they will all be made welcome.

Video and audio will be uploaded during the conference to digitalsymp.blogspot.com and you are welcome to contribute there. It will also be possible to follow on Twitter where tweets will be sent regularly from the symposium. Look for @digitalsymp.

This looks like being a very exciting event and the Leadership Team is very pleased that our ministry can be represented there along with others who are reaching out to the digital generation.