Introduction When I share with people that I have been involved in planting a Cathedral in a virtual world more often than not they look at me rather confused. The inquisitive will ask how it can be a real church when people never actually meet. However as I respond they start to see that I am not wasting my time on a frivolous game but taking part in developing a legitimate ministry. This mission is to a completely new environment and such reactions are expected. When I first entered the virtual world of Second Life (SL) back in January 2007 I only planned to see what a virtual world looked like. But when I discovered a membership of many millions of people from around the world and hardly any church presence, I saw an opportunity. I discovered that Bill Sowers from Kansas had set up a group called ‘Anglicans of Second Life’ back in November 2006 which had at that stage around 15 members. Discussions with Bill led to a small meeting where we talked about the possibility of a church plant. That first meeting included Mike Bursell from the UK who along will Bill, continues to be involved. Following that meeting I shared the idea of building a virtual Cathedral. My logic was informed by the postmodern fascination with ancient Christian practice combined with the expectation of technological engagement. In my mind a virtual Cathedral combined these two dynamics: ancient and modern. A German student caught the vision and offered to build the Cathedral for free. He spent four months creating the most amazing structure, and the first service was held in May 2007. Over the ensuing year the community has grown to nearly 400 from more than 20 nations. We offer several non‐eucharistic services each week, as well as a Bible Study, several discussion groups and a 1
growing fellowship ministry. A leadership team oversees the ministry; and in November of last year I received my license to the SL ministry from Bishop Brown of Wellington, New Zealand. This paper provides a background brief to this new missional opportunity and a taste of some of the issues this represents. The Growth of the Internet It is hard to imagine that the academic community who created the groundwork technology for the World Wide Web envisioned such a vast global penetration1. The growth of the internet has been astonishing, in 1997 the number of people using the internet worldwide was 70 million, within 10 years this had grown to 1.3 billion2. A geographic break down: In terms of commerce, over the past two years the number of people shopping online has increased 40% from 627 million to 875 million3. Jonathan Carson, International President for the research company Nielsen Online, noted, The Internet is no longer a niche technology ‐ it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. Almost no aspect of life remains untouched by online media. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn’t surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching and buying products. (ibid.) 1
For a concise history of the internet see: http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml http://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm 3 http://nz.acnielsen.com/news/OnlineShopping.shtml 2
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The internet has dramatically changed the way we relate. Noted Australian social commentator, Hugh Mackay recently stated, ‘the idea that human presence is necessary for people to communicate with each other has gone.’4 Hundreds of millions of people connect every day through the internet without physically meeting. And in many of these encounters they may never meet in the flesh. This has implications for the church where the standard approach has mostly involved face to face encounters within a local context. But with the shift towards community emerging out of networks5, the rise of the internet, and the resulting comfort with non physical community, the time has come to consider mission within the virtual setting6. The report, The Mission Shaped Church expresses the broad challenge well, There is a fabric of the old way of being society and being church. We are not about patching the fabric of that old garment but seeking to set up a new loom to weave the new fabric for tomorrow’s society of the kingdom.7 Our calling as the church is, ‘to embody and inculcate the gospel in the evolving contexts and cultures of our society.’8 We seek to be incarnational, ‘to be people where they are, how they are. ’9 As the World Council of Churches stated in 1968, A changing culture constitutes a call from God. Many people today live in a variety of worlds such as family, job, leisure, politics and education. These worlds represent different social structures.10 Though much has changed since 1968 this ‘call from God’ still exists.
In this paper I explore specifically mission to the emerging virtual internet platform, which is gaining ascendancy and according to such respected commentators as Bill Gates11, Harvard Business Review12 and Sam Palmisano,13 may well be the next stage of the internet’s development. But before I address the virtual internet I first need to briefly debunk a couple of myths. 4
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/29/2018124.htm The book, Breaking New Ground, (Church House Publishing, 1994, para. 1.7.) describes this succinctly as: “Many in the Church of England, and not just those involved in church planting, are asking for recognition that human life is lived in a complex array of networks and that the neighbourhoods, where people reside, may hold only a very minor loyalty.” 6 It must be stated, in considering mission to a virtual world, the intention is not to replace face to face community, but to complement it. 7 p.126; http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf 8 Bishop Graham Cray; Mission Shaped Church; p.xii; http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf 9 Mission Shaped Church; p.12; http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf 10 Church for Others and the Church for the World: A Quest for Structures for Missionary Congregations, World Council of Churches, 1968, p. 3. 11 http://www.nvtc.org/events/031308/TranscriptRemarksByBillGates.pdf 12 February 2008 13 CEO of IBM. See: http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/whatsnext_secondlife.fortune/index.htm 3 5
Demographics One of the myths surrounding the internet is that it is mostly teenage males who use it. In 2006 a survey of internet users was undertaken in New Zealand14 which showed: 15‐24 years of age 25‐44 years of age 45‐64 years of age 65‐74 years of age 75+ years of age
85.5% 79.8% 66% 38.7% 17.3%
I recently undertook some research within the Anglican community of Second Life which showed that a majority of the community are in the 31 to 50 age bracket (59%) with only 14.7% in the 20‐30 age group, while 18% are in the 51‐60 age group and 8% in the 61+ group. In terms of gender, within the Anglican community, 56% are male and 44% are female. The second myth is that the internet is a western world phenomenon however, Internet World Stats15 show that internet user growth over the past 7 years in Africa has been a staggering 880%, in Asia it has been 347% and the Middle East a massive 920%. This will no doubt continue to grow with such innovative products as the $100 laptop developed by MIT Media Laboratory16 and with the cost of technology continuing to fall. The virtual platform The first stage of the internet, known as Web 1.0, was about presenting information in a similar way to television or a newspaper, where the user received the information but was unable to be actively involved.17 In the last four or so years, the second stage of the internet has emerged and is known as Web 2.0. This sees users actively involved in producing content. Many of the most successful 2.0 websites are 100% user driven. The Pew Internet Project 18 describes this as the ‘surging wisdom of crowds’. Sites that exemplify this ‘crowd wisdom’ include the applications on facebook.com, videos on Youtube.com and the online encyclopedia, 14
http://www.newzealandatoz.com/index.php?pageid=598 www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm 16 For more information see: http://laptop.org/ 17 For an example see: http://anglicansonline.org/ 18 http://www.pewinternet.org/ 15
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wikipedia.com. What is emerging now is the third stage of the internet’s development, the virtual platform. With the first two stages of the internet, the presentation was 2 dimensional and flat, whereas, the virtual platform is three dimensional. The user is represented by a figure on the screen who is able to move through a three dimensional world. Interaction is via text or voice and in a similar fashion to Web 2.0, users create 100% of the content including virtual buildings, parks, or in the case of the Anglican mission, a Cathedral. It has been predicted that in as little as three years, 80% of active internet users may be involved in the Virtual World.19 The premier virtual offering is Second Life and it is within Second Life that the Anglican Cathedral community was founded. Second Life Second Life20 was founded by Linden Lab21 in 1999. As of April 2008 there are more than 13 million members with 1.1 million participating in the past 60 days. A majority of the activity in Second Life is socializing although there is a growing economy based on the US dollar with some 54,747 people reporting a positive cash flow within Second Life for the month of February alone, and 155 of them making more than US$5,000 in February.22 This is achieved through trading virtual land as well as selling a range of products, some specific to Second Life, while other offerings being real world products marketed within Second Life. There is also a large educational presence in Second Life with a number of universities holding classes in virtual lecture theatres. This is made possible as vocal presentations, PowerPoint, videos and lecture notes can all be made available within the virtual setting. There are also a number of multi‐national companies who are reducing travel costs by holding meetings and conferences in Second Life. The Anglican Group in Second Life The Anglican Community in Second Life is an international group of nearly 400, governed by a leadership team made up of members from the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand. We currently offer two services on a Sunday as well as a midweek service, a Bible Study and a number of topical discussion groups. Plus throughout the week there are hundreds of fellowship encounters around the Cathedral. 19
According to Gartner Research; http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=503861 www.secondlife.com 21 www.lindenlab.com 22 http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php 20
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Services Attending a virtual service involves first downloading the Second Life software onto your hard drive and then logging in. Once you are inside the virtual world you search for ‘Anglican Cathedral’ and then teleport to the Cathedral grounds. You would then be welcomed by the service leader and given the liturgy by clicking on a book located on a table near the entrance. You then click on a virtual pew and select ‘sit’. The service leader will then either type the liturgy, or say it for all to hear or offer both. The liturgy is either Compline or Evening Prayer. When it comes to the sermon the message has been prerecorded and at the appropriate time is streamed into Second Life. Following the service people congregate around the Cathedral for fellowship and discussion. Where ever you are in the world, if you have a good internet connection and a reasonably powerful computer you can attend church. Due to technological limitations, only 40 people can attend a service at any one time. One of the services is very close to that limit and the other two are well on the way. My recent research into the Cathedral community showed that 35% of the group attended a service each week, while 20% said they attended a service occasionally, 18% once every two weeks and 10% shared they attended more than one service a week. Interestingly 17% noted that the SL service was the only church service they attended. As one respondent shared, I have been housebound for the last 2 years due to disability so, at present, this is the only church service I attend. This highlights well the aim of the virtual Anglican Cathedral which is to be church for people wherever they are, whatever their circumstance. The membership of the group comes from more than 20 nations. Some of the members are housebound, and some unable to attend church due to cultural restrictions. My research shows that 83% attend church in real life with 67% of them attending an Anglican/Episcopalian church. The two major reasons people attend a service at the virtual Cathedral is convenience and the chance to worship with people from around the world. Convenience is a hallmark of the internet where people can make purchases without leaving home, where finding information requires nothing more than access to Google.com23. Amazon Books in the US have just created an electronic reader
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For a discussion on this phenomenon see Jason Clark’s blog at: http://jasonclark.ws/2008/03/31/the‐cult‐of‐the‐amateur/ 6
that stores 300 titles, and a new book can be purchased and wirelessly downloaded on the reader in just minutes.24 The internet has also ‘shrunk’ the world. In a typical service at the virtual Cathedral there will be people from Europe, the US, UK, Asia, Australia, New Zealand. Being an Anglican community with members from more than 20 nations does raise some interesting jurisdictional questions which I will touch on later. Incarnational Mission At the heart of the mission to the virtual world is the desire to glorify God. Technology is simply a new context in which to express this. Where people are, so the church needs to be also. This is a rather messy process as there are no maps and limited rules of engagement. One of the early discussions the Anglican Group engaged in was around whether sin in the virtual space constituted actual sin. This very clearly displayed a split between those who saw the virtual as an extension of who they are and those who saw it as pure role play. A few questions among many that require thinking through include: • How truthful is it to be represented by a fantasy avatar such as a dragon or hedgehog? • How does one actually offer genuine pastoral care without ever physically meeting? • Can one offer the sacraments, in particular the dominical sacraments of baptism and Eucharist? These questions highlight the perennial challenge facing the church: to maintain cultural relevance whilst retaining the core message and identity. Can we truly be an Anglican Church if we never offer the dominical sacraments? Do we re‐write our theology and re‐define our laws to accommodate the new reality? Engaging in incarnational mission requires a certain flexibility to respond to what is, rather than what was. But I don’t see this as ejecting our identity as a church, but rather being prepared to re‐order to facilitate engagement. The challenge is to move forward retaining a clear sense of who we are whilst creating multiple paths into the church community. There are two major steps that need to be completed within the virtual church plant in the coming 6 months. Firstly raising funds to resource the ministry and providing a regulatory and theological framework. The second step is being resourced through involvement with the Ecclesiastical Law Society based in the UK. Eminent ecclesiastical lawyer and Deputy Chair of the Ecclesiastical Law Society, The Revd Rupert Bursell QC and Mike Bursell, one of the leaders of the Anglican Group in Second Life, have written a 24
For more information see: http://brownblog.info/?p=338 7
preliminary paper on forming a Constitution/Charter for the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life. In it they discuss such topics as membership, licensing ministers, regulating practices such as counseling, and defining permitted rites. They also discuss jurisdiction which, along with the sacramental question, are in my mind the two most significant issues at the moment. The Anglican Cathedral of Second Life is based on a real life model of church in that we offer services (though non‐eucharistic), we pray for each other and the world, we provide discipleship programs and so on. The point of difference is in the actual meeting space. Jurisdictional Challenge Jurisdiction within the Anglican Church is rooted in a physical place with the parish defined by geographic boundaries as the basic unit of organization. Also the authority systems are geographically defined with a Bishop having authority within an area known as a Diocese. How then do we understand jurisdiction when the meeting space sees people never physically meeting and a ‘parish’ extending across a number of territories? The Mission Shaped Church report from 2003 provides some direction in discussing the concept of ‘network’, Just as part of the essence of parish is to be territorial, the essence of ‘network’ is not so much to be cross‐boundary, but to be non‐boundary. The heartbeat of these expressions of church is a passion to engage with a specific social or cultural context across a wide area. They interpret their ‘cure of souls’ in terms of their current members plus the existing and potential contacts of their members in their spheres of relationship within their shared activities and interests. Most network churches have declined to adopt methods of pastoral or evangelistic ministry that are geographically based. They do not visit door‐to‐door, or deliver a magazine to an area. They don’t seek baptisms, weddings or funerals outside their existing circle. Some have even volunteered codes of conduct that will return Christians attempting to transfer, to their present churches. As such they seek not to trespass on parish, but to be different from it. By diocesan agreement and often legal entity, they have no parish territory for which they are responsible. Their only base is the relationships their members have with others. Another common feature is that they seek ongoing relationship with the wider Church. Many have steering groups drawn from within and even beyond the diocese. They have chosen to be more directly and closely accountable to the church‐catholic than have perhaps most parishes. This may be partly their Anglican desire to express an identity that is equally local and diocesan, working with the synodical and the episcopal.25 25
p.65; http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/mission_shaped_church.pdf 8
Could it be that trans‐provincial/diocesan agreements are created to clarify jurisdiction? Or should the church consider the creation of a new Diocese covering the internet, recognizing this new emerging community? Bursell and Bursell note: Diocese, Parish or What?: Historically the cathedral in England was the first church established in a particular locality; it was there that the bishop had his seat or cathedra. It was from there that clergy were sent out to found other churches the boundaries for which ultimately marked parish boundaries. In many ways the cathedral in SL is in a similar position to the original cathedrals in England in real life, although it is not (as yet) the cathedra of any bishop26. Certainly there is no diocese nor is there in any real sense a separate geographical parish. Perhaps it is best to see it as the foundation church from which other churches may perhaps be established in the SL in the future and with which other churches may be affiliated in due course. If so, provision for both eventualities should be incorporated into the charter/constitution. It is difficult to envisage who may have jurisdiction to impose regulation upon those who wish to worship in an Anglican manner in SL. It is therefore seems that any charter/constitution can only apply to a particular group although, as that group27 is formed around the cathedral, any regulation should embrace the organisation of the cathedral as well. That regulation of the organisation of the cathedral is likely to require the appointment of the equivalent of a dean and chapter, although that begs the question as to who may make such appointments28 both now and in the future. If so, the charter/constitution will need to spell out their relationship29 one to the other and their respective duties within the organisation. Conclusion A mission to a virtual world requires flexibility in that we need to be prepared to examine how we understand church as well as being open to new ways of communicating. For the church to maintain relevance we need to pitch our tent in new lands and set about learning the language. To do this effectively requires that we develop new ways of understanding what it means to be church and provide the resources necessary to see it come to fruition. This paper only touches on some of the many issues that need to be addressed over the coming months – but what an exciting journey it will be! For more information on the Anglican Community see: http://slangcath.wordpress.com/
About the Author: Revd Mark Brown is Chief Executive Officer of the Bible Society in New Zealand. He is licensed as a Deacon in the Anglican Diocese of Wellington and will be ordained Priest December 2008. He can be contacted on: mbrownsky@hotmail.com 26
Ought it, therefore, to be renamed a minster (or large church)? This word is not used in the technical meaning of that word in SL. 28 It may be important to have persons of standing in the real Church to be appointed to the chapter even if they take little part in the everyday running of the organisation. It is equally (if not more important) that such ‘canons’ have technical ability within SL. 29 Ultimately, if one of those involved in SL is ordained in real life s/he will have to answer to his/her diocesan bishop for his/her actions in SL if they run contrary to the Canon Law of that diocese. 9 27