Published Date: 12 November 2009
"I'VE got to go now – I need to catch a snake" are not the words you would expect to hear during a morning service at your local church.
But then in your local church the chances are you will not share worship with someone in Australia for whom catching snakes is part of daily life.
Ailsa Wright, who attends St Thomas’s Church in Batley, is also a lay preacher of the Anglican Cathedral in the internet programme Second Life, so praying alongside people from across the world is a daily occurrence.
To some people, the idea of taking worship online at your PC, instead of sitting in a pew in a church may seem strange, but it’s an idea that is catching on.
Ailsa, who lives in Crofton, Wakefield, was introduced to the idea of online worship after seeing an article in a church newspaper from the Diocese of Oxford.
The purpose of ‘i-church’ was to give people an alternative way to engage with the life of the church, learn more about faith and express Christian comment.
It was during her involvement with this that Ailsa was introduced to Second Life.
Second Life, which began in 1991, is a 3D world created by computer programming, which enables residents of the virtual world to create their own landscapes, buildings, clothes, cars and so on.
It has millions of members worldwide, with numbers increasing all the time and every day millions of objects, from palaces to pebbles, are added.
Within the world people meet and talk, attend concerts, run businesses, have relationships, listen to lectures, develop communities, go shopping and worship.
Members of Second Life (SL) – residents – move around in the world as avatars, representations of themselves.
Users give their avatars names and although some users may choose to disclose their real names to people they meet in Second Life, many prefer to remain anonymous.
In the past, Second Life has received some negative press, with reports of people cheating on their partners ‘virtually’ with someone they met on the site.
But Ailsa, whose SL name is Helene Milena, said many who join find companionship and learn more about other cultures. Ailsa found many people appreciate being able to worship online and find online worship is a more convenient alternative, or simply an addition, to visiting a bricks-and-mortar church.
The Cathedral of Second Life was created by a man from Germany and is attended by many who log on for daily services, many prepared by Ailsa.
Ailsa said: “One of the great things about the Cathedral of Second Life is people from all over the world can feel part of the Christian community.
“There’s someone from America who finds being able to visit the cathedral in the morning for a while is more accessible than visiting a proper church.
“I was also talking to woman from Hawaii who worships online because she has MS and is housebound.”
Services are at certain times and people who want to join in would log into SL, click on an icon which enables them to see the service sheet and either listen to the service or follow the words on screen.
Ailsa Wright, who attends St Thomas’s Church in Batley, is also a lay preacher of the Anglican Cathedral in the internet programme Second Life, so praying alongside people from across the world is a daily occurrence.
To some people, the idea of taking worship online at your PC, instead of sitting in a pew in a church may seem strange, but it’s an idea that is catching on.
Ailsa, who lives in Crofton, Wakefield, was introduced to the idea of online worship after seeing an article in a church newspaper from the Diocese of Oxford.
The purpose of ‘i-church’ was to give people an alternative way to engage with the life of the church, learn more about faith and express Christian comment.
It was during her involvement with this that Ailsa was introduced to Second Life.
Second Life, which began in 1991, is a 3D world created by computer programming, which enables residents of the virtual world to create their own landscapes, buildings, clothes, cars and so on.
It has millions of members worldwide, with numbers increasing all the time and every day millions of objects, from palaces to pebbles, are added.
Within the world people meet and talk, attend concerts, run businesses, have relationships, listen to lectures, develop communities, go shopping and worship.
Members of Second Life (SL) – residents – move around in the world as avatars, representations of themselves.
Users give their avatars names and although some users may choose to disclose their real names to people they meet in Second Life, many prefer to remain anonymous.
In the past, Second Life has received some negative press, with reports of people cheating on their partners ‘virtually’ with someone they met on the site.
But Ailsa, whose SL name is Helene Milena, said many who join find companionship and learn more about other cultures. Ailsa found many people appreciate being able to worship online and find online worship is a more convenient alternative, or simply an addition, to visiting a bricks-and-mortar church.
The Cathedral of Second Life was created by a man from Germany and is attended by many who log on for daily services, many prepared by Ailsa.
Ailsa said: “One of the great things about the Cathedral of Second Life is people from all over the world can feel part of the Christian community.
“There’s someone from America who finds being able to visit the cathedral in the morning for a while is more accessible than visiting a proper church.
“I was also talking to woman from Hawaii who worships online because she has MS and is housebound.”
Services are at certain times and people who want to join in would log into SL, click on an icon which enables them to see the service sheet and either listen to the service or follow the words on screen.
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