Exaltist Ethan
Bridging the Gap Between Believers and Skeptics
Part One: The Communities
I am putting this in Religions Q&A because while I do have part of the answer I don't believe I'll ever have a complete list of places online to worship with other people.
So my question I am asking the audience who is reading this thread is: Where are some places on the Internet where one can safely worship and spiritually fellowship with likeminded individuals? This thread will include both places to worship digitally on the Internet and also information on various digital religions. I would like to keep this thread focused less on strictly information and more to do with religious and spiritual online communities.
I am making this thread as one large post to advocate for religious fellowship for those interested in meeting likeminded individuals and don't have transportation to meet up in person. I am not familiar with every religion but people who are seeking religious community on the Internet should have more options available to them than simply what Religious Forums can offer them. The list below is the resources I currently know to unite with other people without having to meet in person.
I will admit right now that I mostly study alternative-type religions so my field of expertise isn't necessarily focused on the largest or most dominate religions that currently exist. What I am providing is an avenue for many people who are seeing online worship with other people and guidance on just how to do just that. It can be extremely difficult to find what you are looking for when you don't necessarily know what you are trying to find. May this be a guide to help others seek solace with others who want to worship together.
In no particular order:
Part Two: Why It Matters to Me
Thanks to @Riders and her thread here for the inspiration for this thread.
As I said in her thread there are various avenues to go by for digital / virtual membership to a number of religions. Of course, there is Facebook and Zoom, among others, and attendance can now be done during YouTube livestreams and videos on demand from various congregations throughout the world. One in particular that I mentioned was the Church of the Larger Fellowship, a Unitarian Universalist virtual congregation that allows you to worship with others through the Internet. They even have a worship app.
The reason why I am making this thread, however, is that I realize now that not all religions offer this service. And to be honest, while doing a quick Google or YouTube search will often give results, others won't. It seems that the Disciples of Christ, a Christian denomination, doesn't offer recordings of services or sermons, at least those that I can find on YouTube. Despite them having their own website. And similarly there are services without sermons, unprogrammed worship from Quakers that are not shared with anyone but the people who attend.
I don't have a car or even a drivers license. I get around by walking a lot or taking the bus. My Unitarian church used to be a fifteen minute walk, but I moved and now walking there is impossible and apparently asking for a ride is rather rude of me to do. There are audio recordings of the sermons at the First Society of Milwaukee but of course it isn't the same as actually attending.
I could see a future website of spiritual societies based solely digitally on the Internet. I thought that maybe there should be a centralized website solely dedicated towards this task, but then realized that YouTube itself already offers many resources an Internet religious or spiritual society would need to keep existing. Their new option for a super thanks or super chats could literally become the almsgiving of Sunday service. And many congregations throughout the world offer livestreams on YouTube's website.
And I realize that no matter how active and participatory you get with these, it may never truly replace the physical involvement in being somewhere to engage in true community. Even visiting Terasem's Second Life location doesn't beat going into a church or congregation in person and feeling the vibe carried throughout the service and coffee hour afterwards. But for those who are like me and are mentally or physically impaired in some way, sometimes online activity is really the only way one can have an engaging and active social spiritual life.
Part Three: In Conclusion
I am sure there are members of this community who can sympathize with me and provide even better details on how to find the religious online communities people seek when being physically there isn't an option. Please, if you have any details on how to engage and interact with various religious online communities, please share your knowledge here to help get other people involved.
That's all I got to say regarding this topic. Feel free to share what you've discovered below.
I am putting this in Religions Q&A because while I do have part of the answer I don't believe I'll ever have a complete list of places online to worship with other people.
So my question I am asking the audience who is reading this thread is: Where are some places on the Internet where one can safely worship and spiritually fellowship with likeminded individuals? This thread will include both places to worship digitally on the Internet and also information on various digital religions. I would like to keep this thread focused less on strictly information and more to do with religious and spiritual online communities.
I am making this thread as one large post to advocate for religious fellowship for those interested in meeting likeminded individuals and don't have transportation to meet up in person. I am not familiar with every religion but people who are seeking religious community on the Internet should have more options available to them than simply what Religious Forums can offer them. The list below is the resources I currently know to unite with other people without having to meet in person.
I will admit right now that I mostly study alternative-type religions so my field of expertise isn't necessarily focused on the largest or most dominate religions that currently exist. What I am providing is an avenue for many people who are seeing online worship with other people and guidance on just how to do just that. It can be extremely difficult to find what you are looking for when you don't necessarily know what you are trying to find. May this be a guide to help others seek solace with others who want to worship together.
In no particular order:
- New Religious Movements Cybersectarianism: NRM Fandom.
- -
- Unitarian Universalism: Church of the Larger Fellowship. Many Unitarian congregations post YouTube sermons or audio on their websites and as podcasts on Spotify. Discord server.
- -
- Messianic Judaism: Oddly enough I have found a lot of Messianic Jewish societies sermons and services on YouTube. A quick search will let you uncover dozens of synagogues in the United States and abroad that practice worship together. Messianics tend to be divided and there's a lot of Discord servers on them, this one appears to be the most mainstream of them.
- -
- Baha'is: Official website, Discord server, Baha'i Library of Scripture.
- -
- Terasem: Second Life location, official website.
- -
- Urantia Studies: Discord server, official website.
- -
- Evolutionism: Official website.
Part Two: Why It Matters to Me
Thanks to @Riders and her thread here for the inspiration for this thread.
As I said in her thread there are various avenues to go by for digital / virtual membership to a number of religions. Of course, there is Facebook and Zoom, among others, and attendance can now be done during YouTube livestreams and videos on demand from various congregations throughout the world. One in particular that I mentioned was the Church of the Larger Fellowship, a Unitarian Universalist virtual congregation that allows you to worship with others through the Internet. They even have a worship app.
The reason why I am making this thread, however, is that I realize now that not all religions offer this service. And to be honest, while doing a quick Google or YouTube search will often give results, others won't. It seems that the Disciples of Christ, a Christian denomination, doesn't offer recordings of services or sermons, at least those that I can find on YouTube. Despite them having their own website. And similarly there are services without sermons, unprogrammed worship from Quakers that are not shared with anyone but the people who attend.
I don't have a car or even a drivers license. I get around by walking a lot or taking the bus. My Unitarian church used to be a fifteen minute walk, but I moved and now walking there is impossible and apparently asking for a ride is rather rude of me to do. There are audio recordings of the sermons at the First Society of Milwaukee but of course it isn't the same as actually attending.
I could see a future website of spiritual societies based solely digitally on the Internet. I thought that maybe there should be a centralized website solely dedicated towards this task, but then realized that YouTube itself already offers many resources an Internet religious or spiritual society would need to keep existing. Their new option for a super thanks or super chats could literally become the almsgiving of Sunday service. And many congregations throughout the world offer livestreams on YouTube's website.
And I realize that no matter how active and participatory you get with these, it may never truly replace the physical involvement in being somewhere to engage in true community. Even visiting Terasem's Second Life location doesn't beat going into a church or congregation in person and feeling the vibe carried throughout the service and coffee hour afterwards. But for those who are like me and are mentally or physically impaired in some way, sometimes online activity is really the only way one can have an engaging and active social spiritual life.
Part Three: In Conclusion
I am sure there are members of this community who can sympathize with me and provide even better details on how to find the religious online communities people seek when being physically there isn't an option. Please, if you have any details on how to engage and interact with various religious online communities, please share your knowledge here to help get other people involved.
That's all I got to say regarding this topic. Feel free to share what you've discovered below.
