What does it mean to be “church” in our digital culture?
For fifteen years, I have pondered digitality’s manifestations of sin and of grace;
I have asked what “being present” and “encountering” mean when “who we are” extends beyond our flesh… when what we share reinvents “reality” itself.
I have observed the rising tribalism that is the most obvious—if sad—manifestation of people not able to sustain “literate civility” under digital conditions.
I have wondered how as church we are being called to witness the gospel, not just through friendship in local communities (hard enough as it is!), but through “a mode of being present” that transcends space and time, reaching out to all peoples.
And now, all reflection hits the wall. Now, we no longer simply “reflect”: now we have no choice but to live and act.
What we are experiencing—for the first time— is “being church” where we have no choice but to pay attention to the digital environment we are immersed in.
Ironically it is the safety of our own bodies—indeed our collective embodiment—that is forcing us to pay attention to what we usually barely notice…
To truly observe “our world” expanding from “the world.”
To truly feel the web-like reality of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity that we are invited to humanize through authentic encounter and openness to dialogue.
Where we spend our time, where we gather for gossip, for jokes, for “news”, for advice, for play, for togetherness … indeed, simply for “being”… is now, in this extraordinary moment, all we are left with to be “concretely” united “in spirit and truth.”
This is not to deny the richness of our immediate embodiment. But we are being invited to wonder at the emergent beauty of our extended minds. Through screens of all sizes we can learn to reach out to one another and be the “community of souls” we all hope for and desire.
That “reaching out” is not in the same way we usually smile at one another, look in each other’s eyes, or shake hands. Likewise, coming together as “a community that prays” cannot be through the usual sacramental means.
It is a “new language” of shared memories, exchanged thoughts, fragments of feelings, experiences of being moved by beauty… that inspire us, make us our “selves”, the “persons” who seek companionship.
It is a language where what is in our minds and souls flows as evocative symbols, as veiled memories, that together we seek to stitch as one narrative to make sense of our collective “new world.”
The two words that we pondered in the gospel of the Woman at the Well, at the Third Sunday of Lent–the first Sunday of our lockdown–are our guiding post in this exciting journey.
Being connected “in spirit” is the communion permeating the world, that exists in the Holy Spirit. … “In truth” is the fundamental attestation that salvation is one, and given feely by the One who loved the world to the end.
“In spirit” and “in truth” implies that we are recognized as church, not by our rituals, not by our signs, not by our traditions, not by the past. But by the rebirth of Pentecost where we remember, we speak, we are missioned in a “new life” that is ever-flowing.
We remember and treasure in our hearts all that we learnt in two millennia of “western” inculturation. But that culture is no more. Those old wineskins have given every ounce of the energy that held them together. New skins must be sewn. A new truly ”universal” inculturation born.
Our bodies and souls continue to be nurtured by the roots that make us unique peoples bound to land, history and spiritual memory. But “in spirit and truth” we are one church. And at this moment we are being challenged to know and to live that “holiness”, that “catholicism”, that “apostolicity” anew … as we set forth on one journey in a new world.
Article was first published as a Facebook note on Nadia’s profile on March 17th.
