Anna Mogensen wrote in Danish on religion in cyberspace on http://www.kristendom.dk
I 2000 oprettede den katolske jesuitterorden i Irland hjemmesiden www.sacredspace.ie. Her klikker man sig ind på en såkaldt online-bøn, og på 10 minutter bliver man guidet igennem fem trin i en kristen bøn foran computerskærmen. Formålet med at oprette siden var oprindeligt at udnytte internettets muligheder til at udbrede evangeliet.
– Hjemmesiden var en naturlig konsekvens af, at vi eksperimenterede med forskellige medieformer som radio og magasiner, siger hjemmesidens redaktør, pater Piaras Jackson.
– Den grundlæggende idé er at sprede det gode budskab, men det, brugerne finder mest attraktivt, er, at de er med i et universelt fællesskab – de er ikke alene. Desuden værdsætter de, at der er en ny frihed. Brugerne er ikke tvunget ind i et bestemt tankemønster, siger han.
Cathleen Falsani offers seven things to do during the summer in the Chicago Sun-Times,
2) Pray, by yourself, with others, online
There are myriad Web sites where you can leave a prayer request, pick up someone else’s prayer request to pray for, be guided in prayer by clergy, or join in a prayer chain. Beliefnet.com has scads of different online prayer chat rooms where you pray with others for yourself, family and friends or strangers.
Among the more interesting Web-based prayer sites I found while killing some dog-day time earlier this week was Sacred Space, a site run by the Jesuit fathers in Ireland. At www.sacredspace.ie, the kind Irish priests will guide you through a 10-minute prayer session right at your computer, with on-screen cues and scripture passages chosen especially for each day. It’s free.
The Christian Science Monitor reviews religious use of technnology,
During the week, the pastor offers spiritual guidance by e-mail. Some members donate money through automatic bank withdrawals, which allows the church to avoid collections on Sunday morning. Many members worship daily by logging into sacredspace.ie, a website operated by Irish Jesuits.
A somewhat exaggerated estimate in the ;International Herald Tribune
“Text messages, e-mail and fax are wonderful means of communication for us,” said Josephine Siedlecka, a church spokeswoman.
A Web site called www.sacredspace.ie, started by the Jesuits in Ireland to help people set aside 10 minutes for prayer and meditation a day, also has been successful, receiving millions of hits a day, she said.
The 2004 edition of Jesuits, the yearbook of the Society of Jesus, carried an article about Sacred Space in which Gerry Bourke descibed the international apostolate that the site had become.
Sacred Space, a web site of the Irish Jesuit Communication Centre, went on line for Lent, 1999. Read Sacred Space: an international apostolate »
Crhistopher Howse writes about Sacred Space in <a href=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2003%2F01%2F18%2Fdo1806.xml” title=”Article”>The Telegraph</a>,
<blockquote>A recent experiment on the internet (which itself has a tendency to obsess and distract users) has proved unexpectedly successful in countering this difficulty. The site is www.sacredspace.ie. I found it by typing sacredspace (one word) into the Google search engine.</blockquote>
Highway to Heaven – how to make faith virtually international -Times Online
INCREASINGLY, the internet is transforming the way many of us go about our daily lives. But it’s not just banking, cheap flights and books that we are seeking in cyberspace. People are now clicking on their mouses to meet their religious needs. One of the most popular religious sites is Sacred Space, which is run by the Jesuits in Dublin. Set up in 1999, and available in 13 languages, including Japanese, Catalan and Romanian, it invites people to pray while sitting at their computer. It averages 7,000 hits a day.
Susan Gately writes about Sacred Space in the Irish Independent,
Sacredspace.ie aimed at helping people to understand that you can pray to God anywhere, even in front of your PC. Fr Alan McGuckian, SJ, director of the centre, came up with the idea.
“I remembered how Ignatian spirituality lead you through a number of steps into prayer and deeper meditation. It struck me that the way you click through a website could be adapted to do the same thing.”
<a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/666975.stm” title=”Article”>BBC</a> reports on the second anniversary of Sacred Space,
<blockquote>Jesuit priest Fr Alan McGuckian, who hails from Antrim, and Fr Peter Scally, who is Yorkshire born, are already getting more than 2,000 visits a day to their sacredspace.ie site. </blockquote>
