Church

I've spent most of the weekend getting a new laptop set up ("downloading update 1 of 57...") so it wasn't until today that I had a chance to visit SL again. Since I was home, I decided I would visit someplace peculiar to my interests and did a search on groups related to J.R.R. Tolkien. There were several, and I joined the one with the most members...the Tolkien Education Center and Museum in Eldamar.

Group names appear above the head of your Avatar, so Voces now has "Friend of Tolkien" above her name. Once the Bible Society has its own group, that name can go up there. I'm assuming that if you belong to more than one group, you can pick which one defines you. If not, the Massachusetts Bible Society will simply have to live with being a friend of Tolkien. Could be worse, but I won't go into that...

I had a good time at the Tolkien Center and dropped some Linden dollars on an Arwen gown, a celtic cross, and some furniture that may come in handy later on. There were some elaborate residences for sale that I took cards about--styles out of Rivendell and Lorien, and a castle or two. There were some caves also, presumably for the dwarven types.

I picked up some free Tolkien stuff, most notably a bracelet that triggers Tolkien trivia questions when near a treasure chest. I needed Gwyneth by my side who has a much better memory than I do for Middle Earth history (outside of the events in the books and movies). I did not do very well.

After wandering around the lovely land of Eldamar and then some of Eragon and wondering if the Bible Society wouldn't like to have a castle near an elven tree house, I decided that I would pop over to the dokimos cafe and pick up the Second Life Bible. As you will recall, I got e-mail right after joining from California Condor inviting me there. It's basically a Christian hangout, although no Christians were there hanging out except me. Of course it's Sunday and good Christians are in church and not home on their computers.

Except for the Christians who attend the ALM Cyber Church. I saw it on a list of churches in a search. I teleported to the church and looked around. The outside was contemporary and very colorful. I walked in and saw a notice that a worship service was to begin in 28 minutes! Obviously God wanted to be sure that I did not burn in hell for missing a Sunday at church and provided an opportunity where one would least expect it. SL runs on Pacific time, so it was a normal 11 am service, 2 pm in my time zone. I had company arriving at 3 pm and realized the clothes I was planning to wear were still in the washer, so I logged off, dashed down to the dryer, did a few other things to get ready in case the service took a full hour, and then logged back in for church.

The doors to the sanctuary were open and a few people had begun to gather. I went forward to one of the pews toward the front, right clicked on the seat and chose "sit down" from the menu. it told me there was no room. Well, there were only two other people in a pew that could have sat 15. But there was no room. I tried a pew with only one other person. No room. "Hey," I thought, "This is truly like a real church. I must be trying to sit in someone else's pew!" After several more pitiful attempts to find a seat, I caught on that you left-click instead and the avatar just sits down. A number of people were coming in now. No one spoke to me. A true church visitor experience--don't know where to sit, unfriendly people, etc.

Soon some folks began to walk up to the chancel in the front. Of course I took some pictures.

The screens ran announcements before the service and there was praise music playing as we gathered. The avatar on the piano was a furry--the name for those who choose animal avatars. The guy who came up to play the guitar was named Blundergroin Snoats. The pastor's name was Benjamin Psaltery. I'm absolutely sure there was no option of Psaltery for a last name when I signed up. Hmmm.

As the service was about to begin the pastor invited us to touch the pulpit and get a card. Right-clicking on an object and selecting the "touch" option is how you get things or operate things and none of us had to leave our pews to do it. The card had the order of service, which consisted of words to the praise songs, several scripture readings, and a place to take notes on the sermon. The songs were "There Is A River," "Humble Yourself" and "Hallelujah." The Scripture passages were Daniel 10:1-12, Jeremiah 29:13, and Daniel 10:20-21.

After inviting us to get the card, the pastor announced some prayer requests which sounded like real ones, so I'm guessing there's someplace there where you can put prayer requests. As he named those folks and then prayed, the furry avatar played at the piano. Also on the announcement screen was a notice that you could stay in the foyer afterwards for prayer and counseling. I noticed that California Condor was present. The screens advertised the dokimos cafe.

As you can see in the picture, there were several microphones across the front, but someone only came up to one of them and the praise songs began. Unlike the music playing as we came in, which was a professional recording by a contemporary Christian artist, the praise songs seemed to actually be the voices of the pastor and the one woman at the microphone in back. They weren't quite singing in different keys, but it was off enough to know that this was either performed live or recorded in someone's garage. We had the words to the songs, but if there was a way to actually sing along, I never discovered it.

Of course like in many evangelical churches, most of the worshippers were slipping off into their own little praise worlds--an interesting concept when you're already an avatar in a virtual world, but so it goes. As the singing went on, we were invited to stand--gotta stretch those legs, you know--and I took another picture of the congregation.

That is Voces in the foreground. I don't remember if I took a picture of myself with my new clothes on. As you can see, it was quite an eclectic mix. I don't know that I've ever seen a techno-warrior in church before, let alone a techno-warrior praising the Lord--check out the front pew across the aisle from me.

I discovered that one of the things I had been given in the box of freebies at the dokimos cafe was a folder of animations. Animations are things that your avatar can do in motion. These were specifically worship animations, which is what those avatars with their hands up in the air were doing. I turned on the "worship the Lord" animation and instantly Voces was in the praise groove, hands in the air and swaying side to side. I added the "receive" animation, which moved her arms from straight up to out in front of her, elbows bent and resting at the waist, hands upturned to receive. With the first animation still going, she held the new pose and swayed. When I turned off the first animation, she stopped swaying but left her hands in the receive pose. There was a praying pose also, which is the more traditional hands folded and head bowed.

I suspect there's a sermon there in the ability to turn worship animations on and off like that.

The music went on for quite some time and wasn't all that good. It was then I realized how handy it is to be able to have your avatar sit dutifully in church while you are in the next room folding laundry. When I came back, Voces was kind of slumped over, which is what happens to your avatar when you have been idle for a bit--or what happens to you in real life if you fall asleep in church! If I had stayed that way for 30 minutes, Second Life would have logged me off. But, one bump of the mouse, and Voces was back in the final strains of "Hallelujah."

The pastor read the first Daniel passage as the piano played and then began what seemed a rather shallow but not offensive sermon. He talked about how we rush about our business and don't wait for God to speak. Time and time again he said "God hears you from the very first day you seek him." "You have God's attention. Give it your all." He talked about Daniel humbling himself and seeking after God.

And then, like I would have expected from the Romans Road stuff on the walls of the dokimos cafe, it took a turn. "God is not a nice teddy bear who will embrace everyone like some churches think," Pastor Psaltery warned. "God does not turn a blind eye to sin. If you reject the sacrifice of the cross, judgment is coming. An hour from now you could be out of your body waiting for the gavel to fall with your judgment." And so it went from God longing for you and waiting for you and hearing you from the very first day to God salivating for that moment when the gavel comes down and the trap door to hell opens beneath your feet.

Thrown in was an occasional mocking of traditional spiritual disciplines ("Daniel didn't skip his favorite TV show and eat fish instead of steak for three weeks..."), which was an interesting choice of things to attack when preaching from Daniel since it is Daniel and his friends who gain favor with the King by sticking to their religious discipline of not eating the meat in the royal household. But I digress.

I had to log off before the end of the sermon, since my company was arriving, but I'm not sure I could have stomached the rest of it anyway. I'm virtually (no pun intended) sure that it all ended with the typical "now with every head bowed and every eye closed" type of altar call, but I couldn't stay.

Another religious voice is clearly needed in Second Life. Now I need to scope out some land with the "Where would Jesus live?" question informing my search. Probably not in the castle in Eldamar, which is a pity.