Online Churches

Slide 1:Online Churches, NZ : an experiment in interdisciplinary research

Ann Hardy and Mary Griffiths Department of Screen and Media Studies Virtual Theology Symposium, Auckland. February 10-11, 2005

Slide 2:

WHY? Widespread public access to information through new media, such as the internet, has encouraged Christian churches in NZ to develop organisational websites at a time when evangelical and conservative Christians, in particular, are making a bid for increased public recognition of their beliefs and are calling for revisions in the codes of public morality. The Civil Unions Bill * Destiny Church �Enough is Enough� March August, 2004 *Catholic Bishops� Pastoral Letter Dec 4-5, 2004 Waitangi Day 2005 From left: Brian Tamaki (Destiny Church) Don Brash ( National Party) Tama Iti (Maori Sovereignty

Slide 4:Interdisciplinarity

Ann - research in media, religion and culture Mary � research in e-democracy, new media mobilisation, dispersals of communicative power Our paradigm is cultural/communication studies, qualitative research into online power relationships and outcomes We focus here on website analysis and the meaning-making and experiences of designers of new modes of communication for religious uses. We aim to test a) Helland�s point that there is a distinction between religion online (informative) online religion (participatory) b) Young�s suggestion that �something new� is happening in the development of Christianity because of online religion/religion online c) What do people find when they are online? What opportunities for information-gathering and/or participation are offered?

Slide 5:Issues for research together � defining our terms

Privatization (individual belief /choice, technology P2P) Synchronous and asynchronous activities Mobilisation and assembly ( off-line; online. social/political) Re-publicization of religion?: public sphere and �publics� Connections between �community� offline and online Technology : �tool� or socially constitutive? (this is a real gap in the research) Internet technology and �significant� religious and spiritual experiences?

Slide 6:Research plan

Background research on belief structures and memberships of 4+ religious organisations Website analyses and website watch over 2005 Communications policy comparisons Key informant interviews Next stage : larger scale participant-focussed research; alternative sites of authority

Slide 7:Observation and Interview Topic Areas

1. Relationship of Interviewee to website and website to church admin 2. Reasons for church going online 3. Website design and functionality - i.e. issues of access, design and usability 4. Online communications, imagined audiences, and the building of community 5. Online Ministry: distinctions between 'religion online' and 'online religion' 6. Local and national networks - networking with whom and why. 7. Model of church governance : respective roles of administrative and spiritual leadership 8. Beliefs about authority, and representation of Church beliefs 9. Perspectives on the relationship between church and state 10 Perspectives on individual conscience and moral issues and moral/political issues. 11. Websites and mobilisation

Slide 11:Religious Affiliation 1991 and 2001 Stats NZ. National Summary : Table 16.

1991 2001 NFD= not further defined

Slide 12:Website Watch

Destiny Church New Life International Anglican Youth Kahui Rangatahi Presbyterian Catholic (used as counter-paradigm)

Slide 13:Theory 1

Can the Net provide a significant religious experience? Horsfield (2003) that there is a re-institutionalising of religious faith within the institutions of commercial mass media. Goethals(2003) a) that the net is most likely to generate religious experiences when used in a manner akin to real-time ritual b) that the net is better able to support Logos-based religion than sacramentally- based religion Dawson (2004) that the net may function in a Durkheimian religious sense in the relation to the constitution of community Flanagan (2004) that theology has traditionally subsisted in relationship between the seen and unseen. The net troubles existing ways of seeing and yet may also offer new opportunities. If the net cannot offer �sufficient� online religion, what is it /can it do?

Slide 14:Topic Eight � Beliefs about Authority and Representations of Church Belief

Christians believe in a relationship with something/ or someone that usually remains unseen � God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit Do you think that these forces can be present/or experienced in the Internet? Do you think that they can work through the Net? In what ways? Do you think web communications can provide any special techniques to enhance personal religious practices such as prayer? Reflection? Self-examination? Do you think web communications can provide any special techniques to enhance group religious practices? Different churches often have different opinions on the value of visual images and the suitability of their use in religious contexts? Does your group have policies about what can and can�t be shown, and how are these policies manifested in your website?

Slide 15:Theory 2 - communications theory : public/ private sphere connections

Habermas�s notion of the public sphere and the �lifeworld� Which issues count as �private� and �public�? ( e.g., what one views on pc � a private matter?) The �open� nature of participation in the virtual public sphere Using new media ( itself a focus of �public/private� discussion) to take moral �authority� with wider publics than the �faithful�. Off-line action. The convergences and dispersals of communicative power that new media brings into being

Slide 16:Topic Four � Online Communications and the Building of Community

What are the imagined audiences for your website? How do you envisage visitors using the site? Do you expect users to talk back on the website? Do you require people to submit personal information and what do you do with it? (In what circumstances) is the information they provide private? Do you think people feel safe using your website? What kinds of rules govern online behaviour on your site? Do you intend that your website should provide new members for your church? To what extent does that happen? Is the online community different from the �real� community? How? Does your church contribute to public debates in N.Z about issues such as the Civil union Bill and the Foreshore and Seabed debate? If so what part does the website lay in these debates? Do you see website public debate as an area likely to grow?

Slide 22:Destiny � offers limited �online religion�

Clean look; bold colours, branding, logo represents a moment of collective, embodied spirituality, NZ iconography, popular entertainment,and visual lifestyle mode Sophisticated rhetoric : direct, familiar modes of address, focus on charismatic figure, exclusionary, visual embodiment of family values, references to Kingdom theology, no traditional Christian iconography. High encouragement of engagement/ interactivity towards membership but no opportunity to �feedback� Multi-media (streaming, voice) and therefore possibly exclusive for low end users, limited online religion, but channels users towards real-life churches. Commerce and gifting fully online, non-religious commercial content Real life recordings - not polished, raw, promulgate Destiny�s anti-liberal moral messages + aspirational authority- taking, guiding a �new nation� Asynchronous participation in community ritual � biblical exegesis + motivational preaching about social and critical role of church Delimiting user power ( no search engines, no financial or much organisational information, no significant links � but Destiny has a political arm and another website �Defend the Legacy�) Informational, evangelical, personality-based, very user-friendly, one to many, selling religion, paradoxically holding out the promise of individual power, yet the site tightly governs use.

Slide 28:New Life International � �religion online�

Sombre, blue-grey, secular. Text-based. Small print, few visuals, fern, organisational detail high. Technical details for users provided. E-version of print, limited use of interactive web-capacities. No devotional exercises. Reports on good works. Mainly read-only (email functionality to office) Mixed audience (some outreach) but bulk of site addresses managers and pastors, prospective �church planters,� biblical and secular authority quoted � responsibility and power. Contractual approach, legal and fiscal guidelines, online credentialing. International missionary links, a networked site � lots of links to resources, churches and conservative social organisations. Apolitical but engaged with contemporary moral issues as they affect church leaders. Godliness seen as instrumental in developing right relationships. Offers resources for and management of a diverse, dispersed loose network of autonomous, co-operating churches. A framework within which each organisation can express the work of the spirit in its own way. Transparent processes of entry at leadership level. Horizontal group, many-to-many through channel of peak body with a focus on worldly management of organisations.

Slide 32:Kahui Rangatahi � community building /online religion?

Youthful design following entertainment genres (fan-sites, blog pages), still images, bilingual text, three part portal, dispersed navigational tools : school, network, youth activities. Picture of organiser. Blog owner-dominated, moderated, no response mechanism, link to Wikipedia on blogs. Emails, polls, direct contact with bishop. Calendar, map of NZ interactive. Blog not active at the moment. High potential for developed interaction and deliberation. Past discussion topics include foreshore and Seabed. Small religious content, religious experience mediated by pop culture and artistic mode. Images of blogger�s real-life community � aspirational in web context Subdivision of Anglican Church with target audience delineated by age and ethnicity. Owner is e-ambassador and spiritual leader - leading by example, hoping that youth will come to connect, grow, worship. Where are the kids? Does it have a constituency, is it sustainable?

Slide 37:Presbyterian Church : religion online with some participatory features.

Well-designed, easy navigation, good use of pictorial icons, soft colours, genial image of minister leading community. Deliberate non-use of religious images ( see Nielsen below). Tsunami relief on first page ( prompt to good works). Keynote video streamed, moderate use of I�net capabilities, reports on General Assembly, 2 immediately interactive possibilities � general login, have your say on new rules, subscription newsletter. E-minister - open pastoral ministry (reply 48 hrs), net protocol embedded in �trust� and privacy statements. Sophisticated use of navigational tools (map). Internal links good. Addresses a range of �publics� including those new to faith, resources for ministers and church leaders. Offers viewing advice on media and film. Reports on church attendance, spirituality issues and communication issues( Nielsen). Feedback function not active. No online ritual experience but provides resources for off-line ritual; links to social justice work. Diverse range activities both worldly and religious, assumes community knowledge, supports common history but open to newcomers (high standard of explanation). Reflexive and thoughtful about world and own governance. Information about internal recruitment for roles at low level?

Slide 38:Tentative Conclusions

Current preponderance of religion online rather than online religion. No website surveyed deploys the full communicative potential of the web or offers the full range of significant religious experience online. The one site that offers immediate, exhortatory religious experience is the one which is gearing up for direct political action. Information retrieval is only the first step in democratising ( making horizontal) participation. A range of models of authority, transparency, access to leadership roles, community input is evident but it is generally top-down. Lack of meta-discourse about how technology constructs community; and technology�s impact on religious experience ; and authority and governance models. Migrating knowledge from media/cultural studies to �virtual theology� will deepen understandings of the techniques of self and community.