During this time of the year, I like to take a look at one or two churches beyond my own virtual parish of the Anglican Cathedral in Second Life. This year I’m returning to Finland, in a sense, for one.
The Ristikiven kirkko, or Stone Cross Church, is a Finnish Lutheran church, located on an island with several Finnish churches. This one is definitely modeled after a RL location, described (in Finnish) on this Web page. The sanctuary, as you can see, is open to the sky, and is nestled up against a hillside. The “pews” are simply logs laid out for worshipers to sit upon.
This beautiful little church played host to the Holy Family on Posada a few days after I hosted them myself.
The church’s main feature, which gives it its name, is the altar stone. If you look carefully in the cleft to the right of the drape and lantern, you will see a naturally occurring cross in the rock. I’m not sure if the RL church was built around this boulder, or if it was moved to a flatter site and then the church built. (There is some description of how the rock was found on their page, but Google Translate leaves something to be desired.)
