Digital Theology
-
The potential impact of closure of Churches in the metaverse
In March 2023 Microsoft ‘sunset’ its metaverse AltspaceVR platform to move its resources to support developing other immersive experiences. This may appear irrelevant to readers, unless you are involved in church mission in the metaverse.[1] Welcome to the metaverse! The term ‘metaverse’ first appears in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash describing a virtual environment where lifelike avatars engage with each other.[2] Thirty years later, it is a vision Silicon Valley are heavily investing in and a few churches (predominantly American) have grasped the vision of the metaverse mission field. However, churches in the metaverse are different, in August 2021 Facebook changed its name to Meta to focus…
-
What would Christ tweet? Being a Christian on social media
Over the past month the Bishop of Oxford – and other Church of England bishops – spoke out in support of same-sex marriage. Those of us on Twitter who are LGBT+ and dare to speak up for LGBT+ people have received a torrent of homophobic abuse. Indeed, as I write this, I am on day three of receiving homophobic abuse on Twitter for speaking in favour of same-sex marriage. The response has been deeply unpleasant. Trolling is too kind a word. It’s abuse and it has been relentless. What has surprised me the most is that the overwhelming majority of people sending me abusive messages appear to be Christians. A…
