WHILE some churches were taking their first steps in live-streaming during the pandemic, others were taking a much bigger step — into the metaverse.

Many of the earliest pioneers of virtual-reality (VR) church are in the United States, where the Episcopal Church is now creating its own virtual church space, which worshippers enter through headsets.

The pandemic led to a surge in the number of people exploring virtual reality. Companies, including Facebook and Microsoft, have invested millions of pounds in VR technology.

Pioneers believe that the metaverse is the future of the Church. D. J. Soto, who founded one of the first churches, VR Church, in 2016, said: "In the church of 2020, the main focus is going to be your metaverse campus."

Appearing as avatars gave people the confidence to explore and ask questions in virtual reality that they would not in real life, he said. He says that he has also carried out VR baptisms.

He told Fox News: "It’s spirit-to-spirit interaction. We remember each other from the week before, we know each other’s votes. We start to recognise each other’s avatar."

The Episcopal Church’s virtual church space is called Web3 Abbey. Worshippers will be able to access it through Facebook, using Oculus headsets. The services will be hosted on the platform AltSpaceVR, and run on Monday evenings for five weeks, as a trial period.

The Revd Sean Steele, a church-planter, is working with volunteers to create the Episcopalian space in the metaverse, with advice from Mr Soto.

They are still considering what worshippers will see when they visit the church, and whether the familiar stained glass and baptismal font of physical churches will be welcomed in the metaverse.

The question was, Mr Steel said, "How can we create a digital space that helps someone to encounter the holy?"

He told the Episcopal News Service that the team was seeking to create "a special liturgy that is prayer-book rooted" and customised for a VR experience. "The paradigm-shifting question is: what would an Anglican space look like if we were creating it here?"