While church leaders across the UK have begun to realise the need to integrate the ways of running a church and preaching the Gospel in a contemporary context, the Church of Fools was initially created as a three-month experiment to reach out to internet users and to build a wider congregation in cyberspace. The project was sponsored by the Methodist Church of Great Britain and was launched at the National Christian Resources Exhibition on 11th May in the UK.
The virtual church was very successful in its pilot phase with tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world - more than half of them under 30 years old and 60 per cent of them male. However, in response to vigorous demands, the Church decided to extend their experiment with the hope that a new lower costing and improved version of the software could be developed. It was closed on 26th September for renovation.
Project leader of Church of Fools Simon Jenkins explained the reason behind the recent reopening, "Since our pilot project ended, we have continued the interactive part of the church in 2D - through conventional chat rooms and bulletin boards. But the demand to reopen the 3D environment has been overwhelming."
"We think there's a real need for a sacred space like this on the web. Meanwhile, we continue our search for funding for the next interactive phase of the project," Jenkins continued, "a new version of the multi-user, interactive church will be built if funding is forthcoming."
The function and system of the virtual church still remains the same. Visitors are able to choose a cartoon "double", then walk around, kneel, pray, shout, play a hymn, even ring the church bells. However, the church will only run for individual prayer, therefore visitors will not see, or be seen, by other visitors to the church.
The virtual church does have the minus side. Some small groups have created problems by posting racist slogans, religious abuse and shouting in a church.