How to Build a Second Life Church Service

As a deliciously serendipitous tie-in to my own article, Father Mark, deacon in charge of the Anglican Cathedral on Epiphany Island, wrote a piece yesterday on how he puts together his weekly service for Grid “parishoners.”  Give it a look, and meet a very friendly man of the cloth.

The Anglican/Episcopalian (Second) Life

The other afternoon, as I was rezzing in, I received one of the ever-present group notices, from one that I had just joined the previous day. Bible study was scheduled for the next morning, and I would be very welcome to attend at the Parish House.

Yes, religion is present in Second Life as well. Just about any societal-based activity is available on the Grid, and it’s not surprising that the Immanent is there as well. It’s not incredibly thick on the ground, but RL people, if nothing else, will bring their RL beliefs with them into SL — or create religions. Cory Linden was well known as wandering around in the guise of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and the First Second Life Church of Elvis still operates. For myself, though I have a bit of a mystical bent as well, I prefer relatively mainline Christianity, and participate in my area Episcopalian church. So, when I read this article from Episcopal Life online, I had to investigate it.

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The island is named Epiphany, logically enough. And the owner has built for the glory of God an impressive complex of structures indeed. Here’s the most impressive, the Anglican Cathedral. This pile of prims is an excellent emulation of other well-known piles of RL stonework, scattered about the length of England, and even in the United States, and is sizeable. Whoever built it worked carefully and well to get the appearance, inside and out, just right. When I stepped inside, it felt rather like a real cathedral. Here’s a few shots:

Five services a week (usually Evening Prayer or Compline, according to my reading) are held, and all are invited. Bible study is part of the program as well. There are also sermons that you can listen to, offered by the “rector,” Rev. Mark Brown of New Zealand. For more information, see the cathedral blog.