The first 3D on line church out of the Ship of Fools site in the UK has had an interesting week.

I went over before the media blitz just about buried it, and had an ‘aha’ moment. It was an ‘of course’ sort of thing, why didn’t someone think of this before? I’ve been able to return as an avatar once, the rest of the time I’ve been a shadow.

The launching has been handled with good humour by the Fools folk and editor Simon Jenkins.

Anyway, back to Satan. Disguised as a normal worshipper, I came across him ranting in our pixellated pulpit. I was logged in as a church warden, who has a smite button capable of visiting an Old Testament-style logout on the unrighteous. “What are you doing?” I asked him. “Who is this who dares approach the Evil One?” he demanded. “Well … I’m the church warden,” I replied. “Ah …” he said, before becoming disappointingly contrite.

One week into our experiment, and we are encountering bigger issues than a pantomime Devil. On the plus side, 8,000 people are entering Church of Fools each day (that’s a cathedral-sized congregation), and there are some lively theological discussions in the crypt and heartfelt prayers being exchanged. On the minus side are sorties by small groups who want to post racist slogans, religious abuse and experience the joy of shouting “fuck!” in a church.

The 3D church is doing a three month test run. Funding will have to come from somewhere. Meantime the reasons for this attempt are quite compelling.

We think the Methodist Church (who are sponsoring the project) has a good role model: John Wesley, who did the unthinkable in the 18th century and took preaching out of the churches and into the fields and streets, where the people were. He was pelted with eggs and abuse for his trouble. We’re interested in the same sort of thing: taking church to where people are – on the Net – even if it means virtual eggs are going to fly.