Letters from 3
to 9 December 2007
Like all letters
to the editor everywhere, these letters are the opinions of the writers
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Still struggling
with the first one
Thank you
for the piece on virtual worlds this week. Once again you have shed light
upon something which is so very foreign to me, even though I have been
given charge of being our church's webmaster and have a few members of
the parish that enjoy virtual existences.
As I read about Second Life, I kept recalling the conversations I had today
with members of our church who organized or were involved in the many candlelight
vigils and interfaith services for World AIDS Day this past weekend. Certainly
the issue of sacramental reality is a huge issue in virtual realities.
Yet I also wonder about how the shared experiences that are part of our
real world church experiences beyond those of a traditional sacramental
nature are made virtual by our SL Anglican brothers and sisters.
How does a
community of SL avatars gather to lovingly sew new panels for the AIDS
Memorial Quilt? Is it possible for an Anglican avatar priest to participate
fully in an interfaith service to dedicate new panels as they became
part of the larger quilt. How are the poor avatars who are affected by
HIV and AIDS embraced, anointed, and shown God's love? Do they even exist?
Is it possible to provide virtual comfort to those who grieve?
I suppose
I am just too busy dealing with the cares and concerns of those who find
themselves in the midst of the changes and chances of this life to explore
and encounter those who inhabit the vast expanses of interstellar space,
yet in someway must remain part of this fragile earth our island home.
The Rev. Canon
James Flagler
Reformed Anglican Catholic Church
Fultonville, New York, USA
fatherjim@mac.com
3 December 2007
Just finished your
post for I Advent and was struck by your closing with Leonard Cohen's great words. Bishop Leo Frade of Southeast Florida gave a wonderful sermon
on those words at Confirmation, basically
saying that those "cracks" are what make us Episcopalians and Anglicans. I highly recommend it.
I enjoy your intellect(?) and your humor.
David Elliott
St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi, USA
gelliott1@comcast.net
6 December 2007
Shame on
you for being negative about Second Life
(Ed: We got a goodly number of letters this week from Second
Life participants who were unhappy with us. We've selected
the following 5 letters as being a good cross section of what the various writers
had to say. None of the negative letters were really responding to what
we actually said, but it's clear nevertheless that Second-Life users felt picked on and dismissed. Wasn't it Bernard Marx who
commented that something not unlike SL had 'All
the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects'?)
Mmmm wake
up and smell the coffee. I am a practicing Christian and sharing the
Gospel via SL.
My real life Anglican experiences feed into my virtual ministry. I have
requested permission to quote the Cathedral Dean in an article I have written
about Advent.
Second life
is a mess of raw spiritual warfare where Christ's salvation is so needed.
People project their ego/alterego into this virtual interactive space.
You have to be a tough Christian to successfully interact there.
I have known people brought to the Christian family and I encourage all
to attend real fellowship. I have even supported senior Christians to 'get
out'.
I wonder
if the real Anglican church is ready to receive these people, who think
out of the normality and are emergent.
I know of one emergent Anglican church that could cope. B1 in Birmingham.
My own church is aware and prays for me, but resisted a request to directly
link. My husband and I have protected our real children and other's in
the church as I did not want them to interact in this virtual space without
adequate preparation, mainly of the parents :)
I smile though
this is not a new concept avatars have attended virtual churches before
as in 'Ship of Fools'.
Lorraine Wall-Jones
(Loo Zeta)
Holy Trinity (parish) Ripon cathedral
Ripon, UK
5 December 2007
I read your
lead article every week and am extremely thankful for the hard work you
all do to keep us thinking. This website is one of the best things going
in the Anglican Communion as far as I'm concerned.
However, I
was surprised when I read the post on Second Life this week and was particularly
curious about the choice of tone when referring to this supplementary
Web 2.0 resource. Condescending is probably the closest descriptor, and
that tone didn't seem to suit the normally even one accorded to various
other topics that make the lead. Why, I wonder?
I must admit,
when I first heard about the Anglican Cathedral in SL, I specifically
created an account so I could check it out. I am 30 years old and thought "Hey,
why not?" In fact to date, I have only visited areas of SL that are
close to the Cathedral due to my fascination with it. I am a priest in
the Diocese of WNC and have pastoral and liturgical duties that take
up most of my week. However, I have enjoyed connecting with Anglicans
I might never have had a chance to know through this cathedral in SL.
Granted, this has only been electronically so far, but this connection
has made provinces and churches across the globe shed the faceless facade
that can be a product of geographic isolation. I have not attended one
of the services, but I still hoped for a little more charity from AO
regarding this form of social/ecclesial networking.
I may be wrong
on this one, but I don't imagine anyone who takes the Anglican Cathedral
project seriously (as in devotes real time to it) believes or desires
it to be a substitute for attending or participating in incarnate ministry
in a First Life church. The hope, as I see it, is to enable greater communication
and to empower SL users to do this ministry better in whatever context
in which they find themselves. Empowering the saints for ministry, not
evading incarnational ministry---that seems to be the real impetus behind
this project.
I hope AO
might be able to see that aspect in the future.
The Rev. Austin
Rios
La Capilla de Santa Maria
Asheville, North Carolina, USA
lacapilla@bellsouth.net
5 December 2007
For some time I have been sensing an increasing irrelevance in Anglicansonline. This
saddens me as I have been an avid reader for the past ten years, enjoying
the contact with people from other parts of the world, and feeling part
of a world-wide Anglican Communion.
This week's
rant against Second Life seems strangely inappropriate in the first week
of Advent when we are urged to wake up and look for the new things God
is doing!
Mark Brown
is one of the driving forces behind SL’s Epiphany Cathedral. He
is a member of our congregation here in Wellington Cathedral (built,
believe it or not, of real concrete – has to be to withstand the
wind!), and was ordained deacon a few weeks ago. His first act as Deacon
was to read the Gospel on Sunday morning – a good old fashioned
role for a deacon. His second was to preach, a few hours later, in SL.
Should Christians
be involved in Second Life? I am reminded of the bitter debates in the
early days of Apartheid South Africa. As the Group Areas Act began to
bite, and innocent, mainly black, people were forcibly removed from their
homes and ‘resettled’ in different areas, the Anglican Church
argued as to whether or not churches should be built in these new areas.
Would that not simply be an acceptance of an evil policy and situation?
Thankfully the argument for incarnation won the day, and many churches
were built in the black townships and resettlement areas. Archbishop
Geoffrey Clayton, hardly known for his liberal views (he clashed bitterly
with people like Trevor Huddleston) had this to say: ‘With regard
to churches, I say without hesitation that the Church is going to follow
her people wherever they go. But it will be difficult and expensive.’ (Quoted
by Alan Paton in “Apartheid and the Archbishop”)
Was it another
of those timely god-incidences that one of this week’s Gospel readings
should be the parable of the Sower – reminding us of the extra-ordinary
extravagance of God’s seed being cast far and wide?
Come on AO – you
can do better than that?
Frank Nelson
(Very Revd)
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
dean@wellingtoncathedral.org.nz
7 December 2007
I lead the
Anglican Group in Second Life referred to in the lead article for AO
for the first week of Advent. I have posted a
response on my blog. Included
are a number of comments worth reading.
I wonder if
it would be possible to present an alternative perspective on the opportunities
of Anglican Ministry within the virtual setting? I would be happy to
write something.
Mark
Brown (Revd)
Wellington, NEW ZEALAND
mbrownsky@hotmail.com
7 December 2007
The normally progressive Anglicans Online has panned the Anglican presence
in Second Life (2 December 2007). It criticises the creative initiative of some who set up the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life
(calling it an “edifice complex”) and instead advocates the I-would-have-thought-far-more-questionable practice of “going
to where people in SL are already congregating like shopping malls and casinos, and start handing out prayer books”
I accept the validity of the reflection of Anglicans Online that “SL
is surely a playground for the privileged”. But can imagine that criticism being levelled at the time of the Reformation against
those who were seeking to use the new technology of the printing press! Anglicans Online acknowledges that it has been an online
resource since 1994. Is it merely the addition of three-dimensionality that appears to frighten it? They write: “the ability
to spend hours in a virtual world is a far cry from popping on to write an email or check a website.” How exactly?
They tear a couple of sentences from my
virtual sacraments reflection
“One SL-connected priest (me) writes:
“Baptism, immersion into the Christian community, the body of Christ,
and hence into the nature of God the Holy Trinity may have some internet equivalents — for example, being welcomed into a moderated
group. But my own current position would be to shy away from, for example, having a virtual baptism of a second life avatar. Similarly,
I would currently steer away from eucharist and other sacraments in the virtual world.” (end of the quote from me)
'Currently'? If we natter on about how important it is for the church
to be present on SL, are we not buying into the world of a game, a role-playing fantasy that, no matter how real seeming, is far
easier than actually visiting someone in hospital or tackling the problem of poverty in one's community?”
My whole article needs to be read in its entirety and context, but I would
highlight my quote continues:
“Sacraments are outward and visible signs – the virtual world
is still very much at the inner and invisible level.
I do not, however, agree with those who deprecate the experience of community
that the web engenders. It appears to me that the internet can model an understanding of community that is beyond the physically
present-and-visible precisely in a way that Christians have been verbalising for centuries. Christians can experience support and
challenge online in a way not possible previously.”
In mocking my reflection they miss the caution I bring to the discussion,
not as a “SL-connected priest” but as a liturgist that whilst I can currently see value in meeting, encouraging, and
resourcing within cyberspace (be that by email, websites, SL, online groups, or similar), I think that currently we should not be
moving forward to, for example, having the Eucharist celebrated in SL and people in FL individually eating bread and drinking wine
by their computers. The word "currently" is significant. In our rapidly changing world I am comfortable to live with some provisionality
to some of my thoughts and opinions.
Anglicans Online makes much of a YouTube video clip: “Although there
have been more than 2100 views of the service, only four people have commented.” Again this highlights their own lack of agility
in the web 2.0 world that I highlighted in my article. Anglicans Online has embedded the same video clip on its page. People will
watch the clip at Anglicans Online – that will add another viewcount on Youtube without any thought of adding a comment!
Anglicanism 0.5 is rapidly losing ground in our 2.0 world. Anglicans Online
harping back to the good old days and good old ways will be another excuse why parish secretaries are justified to throw up their
hands in horror when a PDF file comes as an attachment on their email.
It is not about either SL or FL - in today's world why cannot it be both?
Rev Bosco Peters (http://www.liturgy.co.nz/)
Anglican
Christchurch, AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
liturgy.co.nz@gmail.com
3 December 2007
Earlier letters
We launched our 'Letters
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