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Not Synagogues/ churches IN cyberspace but rather
synagogues/churches FOR cyberspace
An acquaintance from another online community (Brainstorms), to which I belong, posted the following (used with permission from the author) in my discussion there on "Online Theological Community"):
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There are basically three clusters of themes that are at issue for religious institutions: 1. priestly 2. pastoral 3.prophetic how each is related to in cyberspace online is quite different. In the Synagogue there are at least the 1.bet midrash-- the place of learning 2. Bet knesset-- the place of gathering 3 bet tefillah- the place of prayer /worship each is different and each may need a specialized form of cyber-attention. another thought- Are we dealing with trying to figure out what in cyberspace is like a bricks and morter church/synagogue and try to more or less emulate the classical model? OR is this to think about what is special to the cyberspace situation and design a space for it that would be unique. not Synagogues/ churches IN cyberspace but rather synagogues/churches FOR cyberspace, quite a different way of dealing with these questions. This is also not at all new. after the destruction of the Jewish temple the Jews and the church had to figure out DeNovo a new system -- we are in an analogous situation. It seems to me that the issue is not space at all but what we do in cyberia is now a function of an emerging LOGOS (not the word like this ) of John 1:1 but the original meaning of Logos as an intelligent being in itself that is more or less independeant of physical space altogether. more a function of the Noosphere FOR cyberia. (Moshe Dror)
Moshe, I wish I had been checking this last 11 days, because that's a dandy post. I would say that in answer to part 3, the second OR is how I see this question directed, which is, as you say, "to think about what is special to the cyberspace situation and design a space for it that would be unique" "not Synagogues/ churches IN cyberspace but rather synagogues/churches FOR cyberspace" is another excellent distinction. I have to go to work tomorrow early, so I will send a reminder to my email there so I will get back to this. And then I will run on over to 344 and go through that thread. I was on vacation last week and had little opportunity to login and browse other than email. Great obervations!
As soon as I began to see the form and the format and flow of the Weblog/Blogger genre, I knew that I was seeing a sub-revolution within the older, now more tamed Internet. It is a ray of hope for me, especially after reading Lessig's the Future Of Ideas, to see another outlet for expression being made more accessible to all levels of Web-saviness. Of course, with my interests in how all this affects the Theological Community, I have been drawn in and spend my evenings combing around the Weblog world with a wonder that I don't recall since firing up my first Mosaic session and browsing around the Web. My church is one with a very large per-capita involvement in political or social issues, and so many members circulate emails and website sightings that deal with areas of their concerns. The Weblog provide an ideal "storage" and "enabling" of disseminating this kind of information, and with the ability to create Multi-author Weblogs (like in Radio's "Categories") and pull in rss feeds from other webloggers into one place, a Church Community weblog can be established. We are convening a small Website committee to help me with my Web publishing tasks for the Church, and I am intending to introduce them to the idea. I also see coming a Community Server idea that would not only host a "Church information site" but a series of member blogs (There is a little litany at our church where the speaker says "I am a COG", and the people say "A What?" and the speaker says "A COG; A Child of God"......and last Sunday when I heard it, my thinking lately immersed with weblogging, I thought "a COG Blog"; that would be a good service to provide, as a way to express, in the words of the members, something of the flavor of the community. |
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This seems to follow the idea that the question Moshe raised above where he says:
is this to think about what is special to the cyberspace situation and design a space for it that would be unique. not Synagogues/ churches IN cyberspace but rather synagogues/churches FOR cyberspace, quite a different way of dealing with these questions
It seems to take web form and function and present us with how what the Church is doing could utilize that space and its available functions. The personal story and the ideas/causes/concerns to which they naturally want to link themselves is a clean and comfortable fit for the Blogging phenomenon. (btw, until I learn better, I generally use the terms Blogging and Weblogging intercahngable, although I get the impression that some don't like Blogger.com and the wave of "non-weblog-like" things it has spawned posing as weblogs, but calling themselves Blogs......I don't know, but I'm just excited about it all)
8:42:56 PM 
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