MidEast News Source, Google Your to Way to God, 17 May 07 multi-faith approach to the subject, quite an interesting overview: "Technology has influenced religion in other ways as well – the Internet has created a global community for worshippers of all faiths, connected by just a click of the mouse."

washingtonpost.com, BBC v Scientology: A YouTube Story Starring John Sweeney, When Reporters Attack L. Ron Hubbard "While the verdict may still be out as to whether Scientology is a brainwashing cult or not, after a recent run-in with the BBC, two things are abundantly clear: Scientologists can't stand being called cult members, and they have the power to drive even seasoned journalists absolutely insane." Author Emil Steiner also suggests it would make a good South Park episode (discuss).

BBC News, Reporter's fury caught on tape, 14 May 07 [Media clip] Also see BBC News, Row over Scientology video, 14 May 07 Discussion on the row surrounding a BBC programme on Scientology. The Scientology and me programme will be shown on BBC One at 2030BST [it will also be available on the Panorama website]. Also see the official Scientology website

icwales, Sacred bull to be worldwide net star, 14 May 07"Sacred bull Shambo is to become a worldwide internet star – a webcam is being set up in the temple where he is on death row." Known as MooTube... Details can be found at the Skanda Vale website, which includes an online petition.

Guardian, GodTube - where the rightwing Christians surf, 30 Apr 07 refers to GodTube

The Guardian, Nuns get into internet habit, 27 Apr 07 "The 12 Cistercian nuns of the 13th-century Santo Spirito convent in Agrigento have set up a website and are happy to take questions about what it is like to pray for hours in silence every day.

"The sisters, who speak to visitors, if pushed, through a grille, are being bombarded with inquiries at santospiritoag.com, said Sister Maria, who agreed to answer questions over the phone."

The Guardian, Let us pray ... at St Pixels, the virtual church with bar and bouncy castle, 12 Apr 07 "St Pixel is an imaginary character with no place between SS Pius X and Polycarp in the encyclopaedia of saints. But he presides over a real internet community, which has persuaded the BBC to broadcast its proceedings." St Pixels can be found here

The Slate, Schwing Tone, The religious war on cell-phone porn, 26 Feb 07 Commentary: "North America's first cell-phone porn service surrendered to a Catholic boycott". Full story: canada.com, Telus backs away from wireless pornography, 21 Feb 07

New and apparently selling well: Brian Bailey & Terry Storch's The Blogging Church (Jossey-Banks). The book's page is here. There is a Blogging Church video promo. Also see Bailey's LeaveItBehind blog. I haven't read this one yet, so await reviews with interest.

RevolutionNYC/Sundance/YouTube, One Punk Under God Commercial

Some stories that I missed, which cropped up on WWRN's pages:

• Faith group urges eBay boycott over relic sales
• Beliefnet gives spiritual melting pot new shape
• Boston cardinal starts new Vatican blog
• eBible is latest sign of Web faith
• Intimate Confessions Pour Out on Church’s Web Site
• Divine Inspiration From the Masses
• Cyber-savvy pastors turn to the blog to reach new, younger audience
• Divine inventions: Gadgets hot source of spirituality
• Religion Today
• 'Godcasting:' Love that new-time religion
• Religious blogs test beliefs, power structure
• Downloading God: Churches use podcasts to spread the gospel; faithful turn up volume
• Website attacks Da Vinci Code
• Atheist gives eBay bidders a chance to save his soul
• Life’s age-old mystery: What’s it worth to you?
• A More Intimate Sabbath
• St. Blog's cyberpews packed
• A Pulpit Online for Critics of 'The Da Vinci Code' Film
• D.C. church's 'Daniel' blog seizes preachable moment

Nuns on the web: The Sunday Times, Confessional blogs of the internet nuns, November 26, 2006 "Sister Julie Vieira, from Monroe, Michigan, wrote in her blog, A Nun’s Life: "More and more religious communities are getting ‘wired’ . . .. to spread the Good News and to tell people about who they are and what they stand for." Here's a link to A Nun's Life. There was also an earlier, related article in Time Magazine, Today's Nun Has A Veil--And A Blog, 13 Nov 06 which notes, in relation to the website of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, that "There's also a downloadable song of the month donated by a Christian artist, in response to the focus groups' revelation that "music was one of the highest ways to communicate with" young people, says vocation director Sister Julie Ann Sheahan. Thus the order's radio and TV ads feature a theme song based on a Franciscan hymn. The tune is also available on the website as a ringtone. Its title: Called to Be."

Blogger speaks (albeit briefly): BBC World Service, Heart and Soul, Sunday 22nd October Listen Again by following the above link until next weekend. Contains contribution from myself and alt.muslim re. religious podcasting in Islamic contexts.

smh.com, Jesus in cyberspace - you'd better believe it, 17 Oct 06 "Sydney Anglicans have appointed their first web evangelist to oversee a new, internet-based ministry."

Cardinal blogs one post, and hits Reuters headlines: Reuters, Boston cardinal adopts new habit with Vatican blog, 21 September 06 Also see Cardinal Seán’s Fall Trip To Rome

Reuters/Yahoo!, Desperate Catholics find "rent-a-priests" online, 30 Aug 06. "Roman Catholics shunned by the official church are "renting" married priests in times of crisis and celebration.

"They turn to http://www.rentapriest.com, a Web site with 2,500 Catholic priests in a national database known as "God's Yellow Pages.""

AFP, China shuts blog by Tibetan author that wished Dalai Lama happy birthday, 31 July 2006

BBC, Is the new Superman meant to be Jesus?, 28 July 2006 "Is the Superman Returns movie meant to remind us of the Bible? And if so, is it blasphemy?

"Well here's the story."

Reuters/yahoo!, Ancient Asian beliefs spin new Web for India online, 26 June 2006, "Firms in India are now turning to the ancient philosophies of vaastu shastra and Chinese feng shui, used for centuries to bring balance and harmony between man and the environment, in a bid to boost their businesses through "balanced" Web pages."

BBC News, Spiritual challenge for gamers, 4 June 2006 refers to the Christian Game Developers Foundation. I guess some games are difficult to 'sanitize' whilst retaining their excitement, unless you play sports or driving games (like myself - although I'm hardly proficient.

AFP, Devil theories spread across Internet on '666', 6 June 2006, "Websites devoted to 666 were the reference point for rumours of meteors smashing into earth or of pregnant women trying to avoid giving birth to prevent their babies being born with the mark of the devil."

Reuters/Yahoo, UCLA Egyptologists launching online encyclopedia, 28 April 2006, "Frustrated with the poor quality of many Web sites dealing with ancient Egypt, a professor at the University of California has decided to create a massive online encyclopedia devoted solely to Egyptology."

MSNBC/WWRN, At the comics shop, religion goes graphic, 25 April 2006, refers to ComicBookReligion.com and also includes quotes from Greg Garrett, the author of Holy Superheroes! Exploring Faith & Spirituality in Comic Books - which sounds like an interesting volume.