The Electronic Church Community
Following is an article from Newsweek about using the Internet to build church community. The question is:
Can the Internet replace physical, social interaction?
Click in Remembrance of Me
by Lisa Miller
http://www.newsweek.com/id/165676
With a scrap of bagel and a sip of Crystal Light, Beth McDonald gave
communion to her husband. Then, after a blessing, he gave communion to
her. Music played as the celebrant intoned the ancient words, "Do this in
remembrance of me." The experience was among the most spiritually powerful
of her life. "I had my eyes closed," McDonald told me. "We were praying
... I got really choked up."
McDonald was not in church; she was in her living room in Minnesota. The
celebrant was not at church; he was at home, in Santa Fe, N.M. Other
participants logged on from Sri Lanka, Australia and the Netherlands.
Through streaming video and the Internet, all were joined in holy
communion.
As technology reshapes our world, as our "friends" become the people we
know on Facebook as well as the ones we invite home for dinner, the
definition of community is taking on radically new meanings. Nowhere is
the concept of community more crucial than in religion. In the West,
people traditionally worship together, in a group, in one room; that
togetherness has theological import. In Christianity, the sacrament of
communion underscores the unity of the faithful; consuming the consecrated
bread and wine binds Christians with each other, with the saints in heaven
and with the Lord. Now, at the farthest corners of the Christian world, a
few people are applying new-tech concepts of community to this ancient
rite. The example above is among the most avant-garde. The celebrant, Zeph
Daniel, is a musician who preaches online to a group of Christians
disconnected from the traditional church. One of his slogans is "Leave
religion and find God."
The experiment is underway in more mainstream corners of the Christian
world as well. Two Methodist ministers have (in unrelated efforts) put
communion services online. The Rev. Thomas Madron, pastor of Trinity
United Methodist Church in Nashville, says he was moved to build an
interactive communion site (holycommunionontheweb.com) to help people get
what he calls "spiritual buttressing" when they need it, regardless of
whether they regularly go to church. A former technology-company CEO,
Madron is convinced that religious institutions need to rethink the way
they deliver their services. "There's a whole long list of people who just
simply can't make it regularly to a church—for example, people in the
military, or people whose jobs require them to travel a lot, or students."
His tenure in the tech world led him to ponder "how we can provide
authentic worship experiences through the Web for people who are not part
of the institutional church." Unlike Daniel's communion service, which
occurred at a specific time—and so gathered people together, in virtual
space—Madron's version is do-it-yourself. Simply click on the link and
proceed as directed— an approach that allows the communicant to take
communion any time, anywhere. Madron says his online service is meant to
augment, not replace, a church service. "There's a communal aspect to the
eucharist that's difficult to satisfy on the Web," he says.
Can a Christian community be authentically replicated online? For Roman
Catholics, especially, who believe the communion wafer is the body of
Christ, a disembodied ritual makes no sense. Anne Foerst is a professor of
computer science at St. Bonaventure University. She is also a practicing
Lutheran who has a doctorate in theology. The whole point of religion, she
insists, is embodiment—the being together, physically, with others and
with God. The sacrament "cannot be simulated. The experience is not about
you and the eucharist … If you can't make the time to experience the
community, then why do you need the sacrament?" To those who say they feel
alienated from the traditional church, Foerst invokes the message of
Jesus. Nobody's perfect, she says. Get over it.
Can the Internet replace physical, social interaction?
Click in Remembrance of Me
by Lisa Miller
http://www.newsweek.com/id/165676
With a scrap of bagel and a sip of Crystal Light, Beth McDonald gave
communion to her husband. Then, after a blessing, he gave communion to
her. Music played as the celebrant intoned the ancient words, "Do this in
remembrance of me." The experience was among the most spiritually powerful
of her life. "I had my eyes closed," McDonald told me. "We were praying
... I got really choked up."
McDonald was not in church; she was in her living room in Minnesota. The
celebrant was not at church; he was at home, in Santa Fe, N.M. Other
participants logged on from Sri Lanka, Australia and the Netherlands.
Through streaming video and the Internet, all were joined in holy
communion.
As technology reshapes our world, as our "friends" become the people we
know on Facebook as well as the ones we invite home for dinner, the
definition of community is taking on radically new meanings. Nowhere is
the concept of community more crucial than in religion. In the West,
people traditionally worship together, in a group, in one room; that
togetherness has theological import. In Christianity, the sacrament of
communion underscores the unity of the faithful; consuming the consecrated
bread and wine binds Christians with each other, with the saints in heaven
and with the Lord. Now, at the farthest corners of the Christian world, a
few people are applying new-tech concepts of community to this ancient
rite. The example above is among the most avant-garde. The celebrant, Zeph
Daniel, is a musician who preaches online to a group of Christians
disconnected from the traditional church. One of his slogans is "Leave
religion and find God."
The experiment is underway in more mainstream corners of the Christian
world as well. Two Methodist ministers have (in unrelated efforts) put
communion services online. The Rev. Thomas Madron, pastor of Trinity
United Methodist Church in Nashville, says he was moved to build an
interactive communion site (holycommunionontheweb.com) to help people get
what he calls "spiritual buttressing" when they need it, regardless of
whether they regularly go to church. A former technology-company CEO,
Madron is convinced that religious institutions need to rethink the way
they deliver their services. "There's a whole long list of people who just
simply can't make it regularly to a church—for example, people in the
military, or people whose jobs require them to travel a lot, or students."
His tenure in the tech world led him to ponder "how we can provide
authentic worship experiences through the Web for people who are not part
of the institutional church." Unlike Daniel's communion service, which
occurred at a specific time—and so gathered people together, in virtual
space—Madron's version is do-it-yourself. Simply click on the link and
proceed as directed— an approach that allows the communicant to take
communion any time, anywhere. Madron says his online service is meant to
augment, not replace, a church service. "There's a communal aspect to the
eucharist that's difficult to satisfy on the Web," he says.
Can a Christian community be authentically replicated online? For Roman
Catholics, especially, who believe the communion wafer is the body of
Christ, a disembodied ritual makes no sense. Anne Foerst is a professor of
computer science at St. Bonaventure University. She is also a practicing
Lutheran who has a doctorate in theology. The whole point of religion, she
insists, is embodiment—the being together, physically, with others and
with God. The sacrament "cannot be simulated. The experience is not about
you and the eucharist … If you can't make the time to experience the
community, then why do you need the sacrament?" To those who say they feel
alienated from the traditional church, Foerst invokes the message of
Jesus. Nobody's perfect, she says. Get over it.
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