OMGod: The World's first online church

  • Breaking
  • 04/08/2010

Gisborne Anglican vicar Blake Ramage is the brainchild behind a world-first online church.

OMGod is an officially-endorsed Anglican church but if you're looking for a building with pews, you won't find it.

It is a church for today's connected world...an online community built exclusively across popular social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

"Many churches have websites and an online presence but this is the first church I know of that operates solely on the internet," the Reverend Ramage, vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Gisborne said.

OMGod is Mr Blake's brainchild and he is convinced it will offer something for everyone, regardless of religious persuasion, personal background or age.

"At any time of the day, people can click on to OMGodChurch.com or the Facebook group and find something to ponder. The content will always be fresh and give food for spiritual thought."

The format will include Thought of the Day, comments and videos, as well as prayers, songs, discussion topics, and information about social issues. Everything is designed to be as accessible as possible, especially to people with no church background.

"People don't have to be 'religious' to join. We are committed to OMGod being presented in a way that's interesting, helpful and easy to digest for everyone."

Finding a way to manage an online-only church has caused a few in the Anglican Church to scratch their heads.

"It doesn't quite fit with the way we normally do things," admits the Right Reverend David Rice, Bishop of Waiapu.

"But we were convinced that nutting out the management and accountability side of OMGod was worthwhile because it represents the church moving towards the wider community, rather than us expecting the wider community to come to us."

NZPA

source: newshub archive