wfn.org | UMNS# 04555-Cyberspace church experiment ends after four months

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Cyberspace church experiment ends after four months 

Nov. 24, 2004	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470* 
Nashville {04555}

NOTE: A photograph is available at www.umc.org.

A UMC.org Feature
By Tamie Ross*

Church of Fools began as a three-month experiment: Would Internet-savvy
Christians and non-Christians embrace a three-dimensional, virtual reality
church? 

Could a group of anonymous Internet users of varying backgrounds worship
harmoniously together, via terminals and borrowed pixel bodies? Would minds
meet and souls join in a simulated sanctuary without benefit of handshakes or
hymns, relying instead on a highly visual and informational format?

Call it a success tinged with disappointment.

The church's co-founders, Stephen Goddard and Simon Jenkins, say the venture
was positive, noting the church operated four months - a month longer than
planned.

Church of Fools closed its animated doors Sept. 26, after exhausting its
funds. The Methodist Church of Great Britain was the official lead sponsor.
Though the virtual-church was closed, Church of Fools continues to maintain
an online community.

" 'Foolish' was the reaction of some stalwart Methodists to the news that we
were sponsoring the pilot stage of the Church of Fools," says the Rev.
Jonathan Kerry, coordinating secretary for worship and learning of the
Methodist Church of Great Britain. "But many more have been delighted,
intrigued and inspired by the project."

Some in the religious community think online worship is a feasible, only
slightly futuristic concept. Others say simulation could never replace the
emotion and interaction that happens with face-to-face connections.

Robert Webber, professor of ministry at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Lombard, Ill., says he sees value in online communities and outreach
efforts that connect Christians and introduce the Gospel to the unchurched.
But, he says, practical limits apply.

"A Christian faith is an embodied faith that takes place within a gathered
community of people," Webber says. "It's lived out.

"I think it's essential that we as Christians meet together," he says. "We're
not designed to be disembodied or individualist where our spiritual needs are
concerned. The body of Christ is probably not served well online."

Regulars at the Church of Fools online community at
http://forum.churchoffools.com/phpBB2/index.php disagree. They see their
commitment to this body as long-term, despite - or perhaps because of - its
unorthodox nature. 

Convenience is secondary to worshipping alongside those of different faiths,
which many say has helped them draw closer to God.

"I'm a Roman Catholic," wrote Filippo, a visitor from Italy. "I came into the
church today, went down the aisle, knelt side by side with another guy (a
Methodist), and we prayed together, in our two languages, to our one God."

"It was a wonderful experience" that promoted unity among different faiths,
Filippo said.

Filippo and others continue to correspond, worship and participate in online
Bible studies and discussions as Goddard and Jenkins raise funds for the
Church of Fools' redesign and as-yet-undetermined rededication. The men say
they don't want to replace brick-and-mortar churches, but rather to
supplement them and fulfill a mission and need they say reaches past
traditional, physical church services.

"Methodism's 18th century founder, John Wesley, said, 'The world is my
parish,'" Jenkins says. "And 300 years later, that parish includes cyberspace
as well."

Goddard drew upon the writing and experience of the apostle Paul when he
delivered the Church of Fools' final sermon. In "I Long to See You," Goddard
told the virtual congregants that he felt as Paul did when writing to the
Romans, many of whom he had never seen yet felt he knew well.

"Never having met someone, not seeing them, not being physically with them,
doesn't imply lack of reality, depth and care as far as Paul is concerned,"
Goddard typed that day for worshippers to read.

"Some observers have condescendingly patted us on the head," he wrote. "Their
angle? Church of Fools is a good effort but a poor substitute for the 'real
thing.' But it offers people ... a new, meditative window."

Goddard and Jenkins met at theological college in London more than 25 years
ago. The two founded Ship of Fools as an alternative Christian magazine in
1977, saying they always tended to steer into uncharted water. 

When the publication, dubbed "the magazine of Christian unrest," sank in
1983, the organizers retooled it for the Internet in the 1990s.

Since then, shipoffools.com has been a powerful alternative Christian voice
online, recording an average of 2 million "hits" each month.

"Our supporters and contributors are very much like us, people who don't fit
comfortably in the average pew," Goddard says. 

Webber says he hopes the Church of Fools loyalists and others will give the
church a chance to prove its love can outlast even the most charged laptop
battery. 

"There are people I engage with online who I've never seen or talked to,
even," Webber says, "and I feel as though I actually have a relationship with
them. But the church is different by design. Evangelism of any sort leads
people to a community of faith."

*Ross is a freelance journalist based in Dallas. 

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service