Second Life Church Guide

St. Matthew's by-the-Sea

A new web service has been launched this past week - the Second Life Church Guide! This website is a service to the Christian community in Second Life and provides a way for Christian groups that offer worship services, Bible studies, discussion groups and other activities a central place to list themselves and their activities. Leaders of Christian groups in Second Life interested in listing their group and activities, can contact Caoilin Galthie either by email or in world by notecard.

We Are All Pilgrims

Obviously or consciously, we are all pilgrims, searching this world over for the Lost Thing--that which the early Desert Fathers called philokalia, the 'Beautiful-Good.' In all the Celtic affairs, soul-yearning seems as much the stuff of life as breathing. In our time it is a more haphazard affair, for we are constantly grasping at the moon. The cure is a kind of open secret, a turning around, a shifting of the gaze from what is far to what is near, to the stillness of beginnings, to the simple secret place where the soul gathers its nourishment: a knowing of the roots. A knowing of the roots. This is a quality of Traditional People--those drum beaters and dancers and firelight storytellers who chose to dwell outside the walls of the empire.

- Michael Green

Interfaith discussion night at Grizzy's Cafe

My good friend Grizzy Griswold, who owns a retro club in SL called Grizzy's Cafe that plays 50's, 60's and 70's music and the occasional bluegrass, will be hosting one of her occasional discussion nights this coming Thursday, April 2nd at 6:30 PM SLT at her cafe. The topic will be to discuss how members of different faiths, or no faith tradition, can come together and find what we have in common.

Here is the invite in Grizzy's own words:

"Join us upstairs in the discussion area (couches) at Grizzy's Cafe as we discuss how we, as members of various different faiths (or no faith at all) can come together on what we have in common and learn from each other's various traditions rather than dwelling on what separates us. I personally am a Christian and hope this can be achieved one day not just in SL but in RL as well."

"This is not your personal forum to either convert people to your faith or to debunk or belittle other's faiths. If you do so, you will be asked (or made) to leave."

Grizzy's Cafe attracts a diverse group of people, and her discussion groups are always lively and stimulating! I will be there, and I invite you to join me! I will send out a group notice with a landmark to the Cafe.

Of course there is always something going on just about every evening at Grizzy's so stop by anytime for great music and great conversation. Currently she is supporting the Relay for Life by promising to dress her avatar in a showgirl outfit based on how much patrons donate to Relay.

Catching up

My SL friend Vinnie Martynov sent me a link to this video on You Tube.



It that got me thinking again about this group and why I started it. It has also revived my interest in using Second Life to expand my horizons and to explore how others seek the Divine. Also, as we approach the season of Lent for those of us who are Christian, it seems to me like a great time to revisit what it means to be a seeker in SL.

I have not been in SL as much lately, but I plan to change that now that some RL things have settled down for me!

So what are YOUR interests? What would you, as Second Life Pilgrim, like to do with this group? How about getting together to explore some of the sims mentioned in the video?

Pilgrimage of another sort

As has become my practice the past few years, I marked Sept 11 by going to mass at a local parish on the way in to work. The reading for today was from the Gospel according to Luke, and was an incredibly appropriate one, which I will share here.

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’ (Luke 6:27-38 from the New Revised Standard Version)

What I think made this especially poignant is that this reading was not chosen specifically for Sept 11. Instead, the readings for each Sunday and weekday are specified in a Lectionary, which is a listing of readings for each Sunday and weekday of the year and is tied to the church year that revolves around the celebrations of Christmas and Easter. So basically it was a coincidence that this reading was designated for Sept 11.

The preacher talked in his sermon about the historical setting for this reading and this saying of Jesus as he tried to move his listeners from an ethic of seeking retribution for wrongs done to oneself or ones group. He also spoke of the need to love those who hurt us and about the different terms in the original Greek which differentiate between the types of love one can feel or express and that the agape love that we can feel for people in general is different from the love we can feel for our spouses and the love we feel for our children.

He also spoke about the negative and hateful comments about Islam and Muslims as being our enemies that we so often hear in our society here in the US. For myself, I was very offended and angry when I attended a memorial service on the first anniversary of Sept 11 that included a reading from the Koran. My head knew that 19 Muslims did not speak for all 1 Billion plus Muslims in the world, but my heart could not deal with it.

So where has my journey led me since then? While I cannot honestly say that I forgive those who perpetrated this attack, I can say that I accept that it is God's place to judge them and not mine. And this accpetance in not conditioned on God judging them as I see fit, but that instead I trust in God's wisdom to condemn or forgive as God sees fit. I have also moved beyond my knee jerk distrust of all Muslims and Islam to again understand that in spite of their claim, 19 Muslims did not speak for 1 billion of their fellow Muslims.

So, after the mass had ended, I did something that I am not sure that I could have done on my own, but needed God's inspiration to do. I returned to the side chapel in the church building and lit a candle for the 19 men who perpetrated this attack, next to the candle I had lit before mass for my cousin who had been murdered in the WTC that day and for our family.

http://www.legacy.com/Sept11/Home.aspx

~Caoilin

A visit to the Amaterasu Omikami Grand Shinto Shrine

Several weeks ago Dexter Darkstone and I visited the Amaterasu Shrine on the Ribush sim. Dexter and I have each traveled to Japan in real life, and have wonderful memories of visiting Shinto shrines which we relived during our visit.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ribush/27/255/44

As you enter the shrine grounds, you can receive note cards describing Amaterasu, who in Japanese mythology is a Sun Goddess, and is perhaps one of the most important Shinto Deities. Another note card describes what you will see on the grounds and some guidelines about how to worship. I found this very helpful to have so I could appreciate what I would be seeing and how to participate! This reminds me of how during the Saturday discussion group at Epiphany Island when I mentioned something that I did during Lent, and being asked by Muslima what Lent is, that we can never assume that our own religious customs and practices will be obvious to those who do not practice our religious traditions.

I could not enter the actual shrine itself without permission from a member of the group, so I contented myself with wandering the grounds. What I particularly enjoyed was a sacred tree with a description of how you can find shrines in sacred groves throughout Japan. These are places that are all over the Japanese landscape, and are ways to connect with the Kami, who are the spirits of the Shinto world. One line in the note card really struck a chord with me. "In rural areas especially, the devout are reminded of the nearness of the Kami simply by looking towards the wooded area in which a shrine is nestled. "

So often I find that in the rush and business of life in the Denver metro area where I live that I oftentimes fail to see the presence of the divine around me. I have always felt a stronger connection to God when in the outdoors, so this sense in Shintoism of connecting to the divine through the Kami who are connected to sacred trees reminded me of this. While I may not accept for myself the belief that Kami dwell in the trees around me, it calls to mind the beliefs of my own Christian tradition that all the world around us is the intentional creation of a creative God, and that in appreciating God's handiwork, I can appreciate the creator.

So tommorrow morning, as I set out for work, and look to the west and enjoy the early morning light on the mountains to the West, I will take a moment to appreciate how they can connect me with the deeper and greater reality around me before I get into the nitty gritty of another day in my windowless office hacking away at computer code. And I will be grateful for the insights that I have gained from what is in some ways a very different spiritual tradition from my own, yet in other ways is very similar to my own.

What have you been able to learn from your experiences, particularly experiences of the other in Second Life?

~Caoilin

What is a pilgrim?

So just what does it mean to be a pilgrim? What does it mean to be a pilgrim in Second Life? Pilgrimage has a long and rich history in many religions. Of course the ultimate pilgrimage is the annual Hajj to Mecca. In the Middle Ages in Europe, many countries had churches dedicated to St James that were the destinations of pilgrimages, and there was a vast and well travel network of pilgrimage routes that indicate that Europe in the Middle Ages was not the static stay at home place we may think of!

In modern Christianity pilgrimage still holds a special place in the life of Catholicism, while it has not really kept a place in the Protestant branch of the church. I recall vividly being at a BBQ last summer in a city park on a Friday afternoon and witnessing a group walking in procession down the sidewalk of one of the cities busiest streets being led a person carrying a banner. Pilgrimage sites such as Lourdes and Fatima continue to draw huge crowds!

My own experience with pilgrimages has been more individual than as part of a larger group. When I traveled in Japan years ago I visited Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. While traveling in Europe, I made a visit to Assisi, home of St Francis of Assisi, as well as St Peters Basilica in Rome and Canterbury Cathedral in England. I have also visited mosques in some of the cities that I have lived in and have learned about Islam from the people I fell into conversation with there.

So what sets being a pilgrim apart from being a tourist? While visiting shines, temples and churches, I have jostled with the tourists who poured off tour buses to take their pictures (if allowed), and to see the sites listed in their tour guide books before rushing off to the other sites on the list of things to see that day.

On Wikipedia, a pilgrimage is defined as "In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim."

I like this definition. I think that what sets pilgrimage apart from tourism is the spiritual element, that one is not simply visiting to appreciate the architecture or historical significance of a place, or because it is on a list of top spots to see in a place. I think that there is the element of wanting to touch the divine in some way. Significant shrines, mosques, temples and churches are typically built in specific places for a reason. It may be that a person or community felt a connection to the divine at that location and then it became a destination for pilgrims. Or it may be a connection to the greater tradition one is a part of.

Please share your stories and thoughts on what is means to be a pilgrim! Also please share your thoughts on how we can be pilgrims in SL! Is it even possible to be a pilgrim in SL when we are not visiting "real" sites, but virtual representations of places.

PS: My family will be moving this next week, so I will be a bit scare in SL over the next 2 weeks or so.