My name is Lois Keen. I'm a priest in The Episcopal Church in Connecticut. I'm a retreat leader, a liturgist, a contemplative, and a parish priest. I post to Fresh Springs Retreats Facebook page on rotation with others. When I post, I mostly share posts from other sites which come through my Facebook newsfeed. One of those sites is St Laika's - an online, virtual, and very real, worshiping community, developed by the Reverend Jonathan Hagger in Great Britain, with content provided by Jonathan and others, including me.
I've been asked by my colleagues at Fresh Springs to write a little about why St Laika's has meaning for me. I've been with St Laika's since it was founded, by Jonathan Hagger and a community that followed his blog, back in the days before Facebook, when blogs were, for us older folks, the social medium. Jonathan wrote commentaries, posted news from around the world, gave us a forum for discussing the issues in the Church, particularly the Anglican Communion, and fostered community among us. We knew one another as well online as we might have done if we met face to face. Eventually, Jonathan posted a full service of prayer, which developed over time into a blog for virtual worship and prayer, St. Laika's. The blogging community chose together St. Laika, the little dog that was sacrificed needlessly by being shot into space in a Russian sputnik and died alone, a martyr to our scientific curiosity.
With the advent of Facebook, blogging communities began to fade. Which is not to say that blogs are dead. It is to say that my experience is that the community of discourse that blogs fostered has now shifted to Facebook and other social media. So, Jonathan made the shift to Facebook. Facebook, we learned, gave us greater exposure to the world, and the world to us, through sharing the postings of Eucharistic services, daily prayers, daily devotionals of various saints ancient and modern, and the opportunity to ask for prayers for ourselves and others around the world.
I enjoy worship face to face, in a community gathered in a physical place. As a parish priest this happens at least every Sunday, and sometimes more often. At the same time, I enjoy gathering virtually in this community called St. Laika's, where people from many countries can gather together not necessarily at the same time, but in the same place over time, be present for one another, and pray for one another. Though most of us have not met face to face, we are more than Facebook "friends", we are community.
The content of St. Laika's is high. The community of contributors is excellent and has varied interests. We are not a closed community - the most recent posting of a service of Holy Communion for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany has been experienced by over 2,000 people since it went up on Saturday. And most important, in this community there are truly no outcasts. Or, more truly, this is a place for all outcasts, as well as the rest of us.
If the institutional Church has turned you off or turned you out, there is a place for you at St. Laika's. And if you are in love with the Church Institutional, there is a place for you here, too. God is Love; where true Love is, God it there; God is here at St. Laika's. Come and see!
