The Anglican Church has launched a programme on one of the fastest-growing and best-known Internet sites, Facebook.
This was revealed by Bishop Dr John Holder in his charge of the annual Synod delivered last Sunday at St Michael’s Cathedral, as part of the diocese’s effort to pay close attention to the nation’s youth.
“We are trying new and creative ways to strengthen our ministry to the youth,” he said. “We are using the new technology to assist us in doing so. Mr Haydn Workman of the Evangelism Commission has developed a programme on Facebook that is reaching out to young people and helping them to reflect on the Christian way.
“Given the fascination of our young people with the new technology, this is a good way to share and strengthen the faith among our young people,” he said.
It’s a matter of standing on one’s principles…..although I do think that our conservative bishops and primates should attend Lambeth, I believe in the principle of letting one’s conscience be his guide.
Frankly, I have found that Facebook and Myspace and SecondLife, while neat places to surf and interact, really have little in the way (right now) of interesting value that a church’s website can provide.
Unless you are an organization (Like a church), there is no place for a private chat room (although I hear that is changing), discussion board, or the like. On Facebook, even writing on “the Wall” is limited to a certain amount, so discussions are limited and strained. MySpace does have the ‘bulletins’ and ‘blogs’ where a topic discussion can be ongoing, but not much. And SecondLife has the chat aspect down nicely, but the graphics are space intensive and tends not to run on older computers without crashing the system.
Perhaps a blog or a fourm space (Delphi, Yahoogroups), where thread discussions can take place, would be better choices.