(Credit:
Twitter)
In observance of Good Friday, a New York church has been Twittering the story of the Passion--the biblical tale of the hours leading up to Jesus' crucifixion. This means that subscribers will receive 140-character updates coming from a set of Twitter accounts run by people playing characters in the story.
Trinity Wall Street is an Episcopal church in Manhattan's Financial District that live-streams its services on the Web, encourages members of the congregation to send video e-postcards to friends and family, and produces its own podcasts. The church's thinking behind offering a Twitter feed of the Passion is to offer a way to bring the day of observance into modern life and technology: While Good Friday is one of the most important days of the church year for many Christian denominations, there are plenty of devout Americans who don't take the day off from work.
But edgy interpretations of the Passion are nothing new. This is the same subject matter depicted in "The Passion of the Christ," the controversial Mel Gibson movie from a few years ago in which the dialogue was presented in the languages of the time without subtitles.
Also worth noting this week: a Passover haggadah depicted in the form of a Facebook news feed.
Microblogging service Twitter has suspended an account that claimed to be run by the Dalai Lama, according to an Agence France-Presse story.
The account purporting to belong to the Tibetan spiritual leader was only a few days old, but had already attracted tens of thousands of followers. To date, it's probably the most high-profile case of a bogus Twitter account actually getting the boot from the service.
Fake accounts that spoofed media personality Ira Glass and comedian Stephen Colbert gained notable followings until they were unmasked. In both of those cases, the impersonators offered to give the accounts to the real Glass and Colbert, but do not appear to have transferred ownership.
In the case of the Dalai Lama account, Twitter executives said that the decision to nix it was because it violated the company's terms of service. The account, after all, actually claimed to be real: its inaugural "tweet" was, "Welcome to the official Twitter page of His Holiness the Dalai Lama--administered by The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama." The AFP story did not give any indication as to whether the real Dalai Lama or his staff had taken issue with the fake Twitter account.
UPDATE at 6:10 p.m. PT: The account is back, but its creator has explicitly acknowledged that it's not an official Dalai Lama Twitter account.
Ever gotten a text message from the pope? Well, to commemorate the Catholic Church's annual World Youth Day this July, thousands of young Catholics in Australia will be able to say that they did.
ZOMG HAVE U SEEN MY NEW HAT? Text messages from Pope Benedict XVI.
"We wanted to make (World Youth Day 2008) a unique experience by using new ways to connect with today's tech-savvy youth," Bishop Anthony Fisher of the Archdiocese of Sydney said in a statement provided to Reuters on Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be in Sydney for the six-day celebration, which starts on July 15, and Australian youth will be able to connect on a very familiar level: daily inspirational text messages, "digital prayer walls" throughout Sydney, and a social-networking site.
I spent 10 years in Catholic school and we definitely never had anything like this. Guess the digital age does change everything.
According to Reuters, the broadcast, mobile, broadband, and other tech-related services surrounding the event will be provided by the Australian telecom company Telstra, which is preparing for 225,000 pilgrims, 8,000 volunteers, 2,000 clergy, and 3,000 members of the press in Sydney for the celebration.
There must have been something afoot in the crisp, early-December air that hinted News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch was in the market for a new Web acquisition. But, contrary to rumors, it isn't social news site Digg or business networking hub LinkedIn.
Rather, the media conglomerate is rumored to have purchased religion and spirituality site Beliefnet, according to a report from the FishbowlNY blog at Mediabistro. The blog received an "anonymous tip" that prompted a call to Beliefnet, resulting in an odd no-we-won't-deny-it comment that convinced FishbowlNY editor Noah Davis that it was pretty much a done deal.
No financial terms have been reported or disclosed yet.
Beliefnet, a hoary veteran in Web years, was founded way back in 1999 by Steve Waldman, who still serves as editor-in-chief. The site, a blend of editorial content and social networking unaffiliated with any specific sect, claims over 3.1 million monthly unique visitors and over 7.6 million subscribers.
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