Spiritual Life
A6
Thursday, February 17, 2022
SPIRITUAL LIFE HIGHLIGHTS
Walking the Path of Jesus
sermon series continues
SUBMISSIONS
ENTERPRISE — The Enter-
prise Community Congrega-
tional Church will hear a mes-
sage titled “New Focus,” based
on Mark 2:13-22, on Sunday,
Feb. 20. Rev. Dr. Craig Pes-
ti-Strobel will show how Jesus
gives us a new focus in life, new
priorities and greater perspec-
tive as we try to live Christ’s
example in the world. The Feb.
20 service at the “big, brown
church” begins at 11 a.m.
Churches and faith-based groups are encouraged to submit Highlights for the Spiritual Life
page by 4 p.m. Tuesday for publication Thursday. Submit by email to news@lagrandeob-
server.com (with Highlights in the subject line).
to YouTube. The link for that
stream will be posted on Feb.
19 on Zion’s Facebook page
and website.
Week of Compassion
begins Feb. 20
be used to watch the service at a
later time.
Broadcast for children and
their parents and teachers
available Feb. 19
NORTHEASTERN OREGON
— On Sunday, Feb. 20, the La
Grande 3rd and 4th and Enter-
prise wards of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
will hold their Ward Conferences
under the direction of the Stake
Presidency. Members of the La
Grande Stake High Council will
speak in the other area wards on
the topic of “Worthiness Is not
Flawlessness,” which is a talk
given by Bradley R. Wilcox in the
last general conference.
A “Friend to Friend” world-
wide broadcast, which was
In-person gathering
includes Eucharist and
fellowship
LA GRANDE — St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church will meet for
Holy Eucharist at 11 a.m. on
Sunday, Feb. 20, followed by a
time of fellowship. Masks and
social distancing are required.
The service will be livestreamed,
and the link will be posted to the
church’s Facebook page on Sat-
urday, Feb. 19. That same link can
recorded for children, their par-
ents and primary leaders, will
be available beginning on Sat-
urday, Feb. 19, at 9 a.m. Visit
the church’s website for more
information.
The “Come, Follow Me” lesson
for the week of Feb. 21 is based
on Genesis 24-27 and covers the
Abrahamic covenant, the impor-
tance of marriage and how Jesus
Christ is a “well of living water.”
Worship in person
or via livestream
LA GRANDE — The worship
service at Zion Lutheran Church
on Sunday, Feb. 20, begins at
9 a.m. Masks and social dis-
tancing are required, and fellow-
ship time will follow. The ser-
vice will also be streamed live
LA GRANDE — The La
Grande First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) celebrates
Week of Compassion begin-
ning on Sunday, Feb. 20. “Trust,”
Pastor Archie Hook’s message,
will refer to Proverbs 3:5: “Trust
in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own under-
standing.” Worship begins at
10 a.m. and masks are required.
The church elders will meet fol-
lowing the service.
Showing God’s love
shares his mercy
LA GRANDE — The sermon
at Faith Lutheran Church’s 10 a.m.
worship service on Sunday, Feb.
20, will use Jesus’ words from
Luke 6:27-38. In these verses
Jesus promotes the Golden Rule:
“As you wish that others would do
to you, do so to them” (verse 31).
He follows this up with examples
and explains, “If you love those
who love you, what benefit is
that to you? For even sinners love
those who love them” (verse 32).
This leads to the understanding
that showing God’s love is being
merciful as he is merciful.
Following the service will
be the monthly Church Council
meeting and Junior Confirmation.
What does spirituality
mean to you?
LA GRANDE — The
Observer welcomes thoughts and
comments from community mem-
bers on spiritual matters. If you
would like to share how you expe-
rience spirituality, email news@
lagrandeobserver.com or call 541-
963-3161. Ongoing monthly col-
umns and one-time submissions
will be considered. Columns are
generally 500-600 words and
include a photo of the writer.
— The Observer
Faith in the metaverse: A VR quest for community, fellowship
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO
Associated Press
Under quarantine for
COVID-19 exposure, Garret
Bernal and his family missed a
recent Sunday church service. So
he strapped on a virtual reality
headset and explored what it
would be like to worship in the
metaverse.
Without leaving his home
in Richmond, Virginia, he was
soon floating in a 3D outer-space
wonderland of pastures, rocky
cliffs and rivers, as the avatar of
a pastor guided him and others
through computer-generated illus-
trations of biblical passages that
seemed to come to life as they
prayed.
“I couldn’t have had such an
immersive church experience
sitting in my pew. I was able to
see the scriptures in a new way,”
said Bernal, a member of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints, widely known as
the Mormon church.
He’s among many Americans
— some traditionally religious,
some religiously unaffiliated —
who are increasingly communing
spiritually through virtual reality,
one of the many evolving spaces
in the metaverse that have grown
in popularity during the corona-
virus pandemic.
Ranging from spiritual med-
itations in fantasy worlds to tra-
ditional Christian worship ser-
vices with virtual sacraments in
hyperrealistic, churchlike envi-
ronments, their devotees say the
experience offers a version of fel-
lowship that’s just as genuine as
what can be found at a brick-and-
mortar temple.
“The most important aspect to
me, which was very real, was the
closer connection with God that I
felt in my short time here,” Bernal
said.
The service he attended was
hosted by VR Church, which was
founded in 2016 by D.J. Soto, a
former high school teacher and
Steve Helber/Associated Press
Pastor D.J. Soto, the lead pastor of VR Church, delivers a sermon in his home on Jan.
23, 2022, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Soto sings, preaches and performs digital
baptisms in the metaverse to a growing congregation of avatars.
pastor at a nonvirtual church. VR
Church bills itself as a spiritual
community existing “entirely in
the metaverse to celebrate God’s
love for the world.”
Soto had previously felt called
to church planting, or starting
new physical churches. But after
discovering the VR social plat-
form AltSpaceVR, he was awak-
ened to the possibilities of con-
necting in virtual reality. He set
out to create an inclusive Chris-
tian church in the metaverse, an
immersive virtual world that has
been gaining buzz since Face-
book said last October that it
would invest billions in building
it out.
Attendance was scant for
the first year as Soto often
found himself preaching to just
a handful of people at a time,
most of them atheists and agnos-
tics who were more interested in
debating about faith. His congre-
gation has since grown to about
200 people, and he has ordained
other ministers remotely from
his Virginia home and baptized
believers who are unable to leave
their houses because of illnesses.
“The future of the church is
the metaverse,” Soto said. “It’s
not an anti-physical thing. I don’t
think the physical gatherings
should go away. But in the church
of 2030, the main focus is going
to be your metaverse campus.”
The Rev. Jeremy Nickel, an
ordained Unitarian Universalist
who is based in Colorado and
calls himself a VR evangelist,
also saw the potential to build
community and “get away from
the brick and mortar” when he
founded SacredVR in 2017.
Inspired by time spent in
Nepal with Tibetan Buddhists and
his alternative practices studies
at seminary, Nickel began with
secular meditations with the aim
of being inclusive for all comers.
But some religiously unaffiliated
members of the community were
put off by the name, he noticed,
so he changed it to EvolVR and
more people joined.
It wasn’t until the pandemic,
however, that attendance soared
from a few dozen to the hundreds
who now attend dharma talks
and meditation sessions via their
chosen avatars, at times meeting
at a virtual incarnation of a
Tibetan Buddhist temple high in
the mountains or floating weight-
lessly looking down at the Earth.
“One of the reasons we’ve
become so popular is you get the
meditation that you need, but you
get the community also,” Nickel
said. “We have deep relationships,
hundreds of people from around
the world who know each other
and wonder, ‘Is your dog OK?
How’s your wife?’”
The anonymity of virtual
reality can help people feel more
confident about sharing deeply
personal issues, said Bill Wil-
lenbrock, who leads a Chris-
tian fellowship on the social
platform VRChat with worship
and counseling services for a
flock of mostly teens and early
20-somethings.
“I can’t even count the number
of times that I’ve heard, ‘I’m con-
sidering suicide,’” said Willen-
brock, a hospital chaplain and
longtime Lutheran pastor who
recently converted to Eastern
Orthodoxy and calls himself a
“digital missionary.”
On a recent Sunday, he
preached at a cavernous virtual
cathedral, its long halls illumi-
nated by light from stained-glass
windows. A colorful assembly of
avatars listened to the sermon: a
giant banana sitting in the first
pew next to another of a man in a
shirt and tie, plus a mushroom, a
fox, armored knights.
At the end they took turns
sharing why they came to the vir-
tual community. Some saw it as
something to complement, not
replace, in-person gatherings.
A person with the username
Biff Tannen, said it was conve-
nient: “For example here in Scot-
land it’s cold, it’s wet, it’s not very
nice outside, but here I am sitting
in this beautiful church with my
heating on.”
Another, represented by a
robotlike avatar and the user-
name UncleTuskle, said that “as
a person with social phobia, it’s
easier for me to be here” than in a
physical church.
Virtual reality can allow
people to meet without judgment
regardless of physical ability or
appearance, said Paul Raushen-
bush, who is senior adviser for
public affairs and innovation at
the nonprofit Interfaith Youth
Core and who hosted a VR talk
show last month with religious
leaders who use the technology.
“What I love about it is that it’s
taking ... whatever technological
opportunities are being offered
and they’re leveraging it to gather
people together for positive
encounters,” Raushenbush said.
“And they’re changing lives.”
Alina Delp can attest to that.
A former flight attendant who
traveled across the country for
years and loved to skydive, since
2010 she has been mostly con-
fined to her home in Olympia,
Washington, due to a rare neu-
rovascular condition called
erythromelalgia.
She wept the first time she
attended a VR Church service,
knowing immediately that she
had found a home. Delp was
taken by the community’s judg-
ment-free ethos and focus on
“God’s love rather than fear.” She
began to volunteer with small
groups and eventually became a
pastor.
“I was given a life,” she said.
“It’s the difference between
endless time of sleep and tele-
vision versus my ability to be
productive.”
Soto baptized her in a
metaverse ceremony in 2018,
submerging her purple robot
avatar in a pool as relatives and
friends cheered her on virtually.
While even many VR proponents
believe such sacraments should be
offered only in a physical space,
to Delp it felt like a real blessing.
“Jesus is who baptized me.
Jesus is who changes me,” she
said. “The water, or lack thereof
... doesn’t have the power to
change me.”
Northeast Oregon Directory of Churches
Cove United
Methodist Church
1708 Jasper St., Cove, OR
North Powder
United
Methodist Church
390 E. St., North Powder, OR
JOIN US... Catch the Spirit!
First Christian
Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Worship
10:00 a.m.
~Join us at The Lord’s Table~
SUMMERVILLE
BAPTIST CHURCH
LA GRANDE UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH
A church for your whole family
Visit us at summervillebaptistchurch.org
The Place
62848 Philynda Loop in Island City
901 Penn Avenue 963-2623 “We are called to Serve”
lgdisciples@gmail.com
Worship: 9:00 a.m. Cove
Worship: 10:00 a.m. N. Powder
Sunday Services:
Sunday School & Adult Bible Classes
9:45AM
Children’s Church & Worship Service
11:00AM
Family Worship Service
6:00PM
Wednesday:
Prayer Mtg, Children’s Bible Club, Youth
Group 7:00PM
GRACE COMMUNITY
LUTHERAN CHURCH
Sunday School for all ages - 9:00 am
Sunday Worship 10:00 am
Phone: 541-568-4230
grace.lutherancove@gmail.com
www.lagrandeumc.org
www.imblercc@gmail.com
Sunday Services
9:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
Sunday School
Worship Service
La Grande Seventh-day
A Place where hope is found in Jesus
Join us in Fellowship & Worship
Saturday all age classes 9:30 am
Saturday Worship 11:00 am
1612 4th Street – 963-2498
For service information go to
440 Ruckman, Imbler 534-2201
Adventist Church
“OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS”
Pastor Taylor Gould
Imbler
Christian
Church
2702 Adams Avenue, La Grande
963-4018
109 18th Street • 963-3402
Sunday School 9:15 a.m.
Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m.
lagrandeor.adventistchurch.org
Learning for Today and Eternity
Little Friends
Christian Preschool/Childcare 963-6390
La Grande Adventist Christian School
K-8th Grade 963-6203
FIRST LANDMARK
MISSIONARY BAPTIST
CHURCH
1812 1st St. La Grande
Pastor Dave Tierce • 541-605-0215
We use the King James Version Bible
Sunday School - 10:00 am
Worship 11:00 am
Sunday Evening Bible Study - 3:00 pm (Effective June 10)
Wednesday Evening - 6:30 pm
“Where you can find TRUTH according to the scriptures”
www.flmbclagrande.com
Services
This
Week