Cpetruz1’s Weblog

In his article “Virtual Worship”, Mark Edwards tackles the validity of virtual churches. He claims that while we may be logged onto a website and technically “there”, we are not physically “there”. Edwards focuses on the example of a ministry of Bethel Temple, located in Evansville, Indiana. Bethel Temple has created a professional virtual church community, located at www.zchurch.com. Visitors to the site are afforded many options, including interactive worship, prayer requests, and marriage counseling, among others. Various plug-ins are also offered on the site, such as shockwave and real player. While the zchurch offers a live broadcast once a week, “virtual worshippers” have the ability to join in on the worship any time; streaming video can always be downloaded. However, because of the large bandwith of the videos, worshippers must accept fairly low video and audio quality. Yet Edwards argues that it is only a matter of time before the technology becomes available to greatly increase the quality of these online videos. He questions just how long it will be before the virtual services actually begin to resemble the real thing. Virtual worshippers have been surveyed as to their experience with online churches, and the response has been surprisingly positive. However, Edwards mentions the importance of the Eucharist, and questions just how meaningful this memorial can be through a computer screen. He ends his article by saying that while Christ’s body is transcendent, it is not virtual. When contemplating the validity of virtual religion, I find myself agreeing with the arguments of Emile Durkheim. Durkheim stressed the unifying function of religion on societies, helping people to feel apart of a greater whole. The ritual of attending church and taking communion creates a sense of togetherness amongst the members of a particular society. Is it possible to feel the same sense of community while attending an online church without the ritual of physically attending church? I can’t really answer that question. For me, I love the feeling of actually attending church with the people I care about. However, I also believe religion to be a highly personal experience- it is about the feeling evoked within an individual.  Now, I’ll probably have more to say on this later, just give me a little reflection time… 

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!