Church of Fools, the world’s first 3D online church, has reopened as a place for private prayer and reflection. Visitors to churchoffools.com choose a cartoon “double,” then walk around, kneel, pray, shout “hallelujah,” play a hymn, hear a sermon or even ring the church bells. However, they will not see — or be seen by — other visitors to the church. Initially conceived as a three-month experiment, the fully interactive version of Church of Fools was launched last May and ran until September. “Since our pilot project ended, we have continued the interactive part of the church in 2D — through conventional chat rooms and bulletin boards,” explains project leader Simon Jenkins. “But the demand to reopen the 3D environment has been overwhelming.” Jenkins is hopeful that visitors will use the church for personal reflection and prayer. The project, developed by the U.K. web magazine shipoffools.com, attracted tens of thousands of visitors from around the world during its pilot phase — more than half of them less than 30 years old and 60 percent male. (Churchoffools.com)

December 2004