A former Kirk Moderator is taking the holy message to the spiritual superhighway with religious apps for the first online congregation.
The Very Reverend Albert Bogle is spearheading an online worshipping service aimed at helping those who can’t make it to church receive spiritual help and guidance.
READ MORE: Growing congregation's appointment with health centre
But while online worship, which is popular in the US where evangelical churches have used the internet to stream services and religious messages, will provide a new sphere for prayer, it will not replace traditional churches, he said.
The former Moderator of the General Assembly - a key role in the Kirk - has pioneered the use of the internet and his former church was the first to make its services available through a live stream for iPhone and iPad users.
Mr Bogle is looking to expand his online congregation after early experiments with streaming weekly services on the internet proved a hit, with around 1700 now using the website.
He said: "When we started to stream out our services someone said they had watched the service, but that for the first time they gathered round as a family and watched it on the iPad.
“That got me starting to see that it could be a very meaningful thing."
His website called Sanctuary First was set up at Bo’Ness St Andrew's Church, where Mr Bogle was minister for 34 years, was so successful Mr Bogle demitted his charge at St Andrew's to take on the groundbreaking ministry post through Falkirk Presbytery.
Mr Bogle said the model could be used through Scotland to link people with the Church and each other.
READ MORE: Growing congregation's appointment with health centre
He said in an article in the Kirk's Life and Work magazine: “We’re looking to move Sanctuary First from its present identity as a devotional website, and see if it could become a bona fide congregation of the Church of Scotland in online and offline worshipping.
“I’ll be working with present members to help model such a pilot congregation, and through worship, mission and pastoral care research and model how it might look.”
The project has about 50 people writing on a regular basis, offering daily worship, prayers, readings and videos.
The material is available through apps for Apple, Android and Microsoft devices, daily email and also at the website.
Mr Bogle added: "It came out of a worshipping congregation and has been developed over a number of years.
"Now we think we have got the potential to go further and connect with the wider community of Christian people who do not attend church regularly.”
He said: “We want to network with as many people as possible around the church, so we are not trying to work on our own.
“It’s very early stages yet, but I see no reason why we can’t have regular worship events at different places throughout Scotland.
“It will take time to work out what an online-offline worshipping congregation will require.
"So initially I will not be seeking to carry out weddings or funerals.
"This however may change as opportunities for mission and pastoral care become evident."
He added: “We shouldn’t be seen as a lazy man’s church, that’s not what it’s about.
READ MORE: Growing congregation's appointment with health centre
"Sanctuary First users are either church attenders who find our material good, or people who cannot get to church and are able to connect in this way. And we are going to build on that.”
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