TY - JOUR T1 - Virtual Ritual, Real Faith : the Revirtualization of Religious Ritual in Cyberspace JF - Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet Y1 - 2006 A1 - Cheryl Anne Casey KW - Contemporary Religious Community KW - cyberspace KW - Episcopalian church KW - internet KW - media environments KW - New Media and Society KW - new media engagement KW - New Technology and Society KW - online communication KW - religious experience KW - RELIGIOUS RITUAL AB - Cheryl Anne Casey deals with Practicing Faith in Cyberspace: Conceptions and Functions of Religious Rituals on the Internet. She examines the emerging phenomenon of online religious rituals and their functions for participants in order to illuminate the relationship between changing technologies of communication and our changing conceptions of religion. Her case study considers an online Episcopalian church service within the framework of ritual theory. Keys to the analysis are the particular design chosen for the service (given the multifarious forms which rituals can take in cyberspace) and the relationship between choice of design and the tenets of the particular faith group. The objective of this study is to shed light on the relationship between conceptions of religion, religious experience, and changing media environments by examining online rituals and the meanings and functions these rituals hold for those who access them VL - 02.1 UR - http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/religions/article/view/377/353 IS - Special Issue on Rituals on the Internet ER -