This paper will examine whether we can build authentic relationships in the metaverse. The individual uses a headset and is represented by their avatar when attending church (and other activities) but with whom is the relationship being built, the person behind the headset or the avatar. It will examine two theories of relationship. Firstly Aristotle’s three types of friendships:

pleasure, utility, and virtue (Nyholm, 2023). The second will focus on Karl Barth’s four criteria for an authentic relationship namely visibility (“looking the other in the eye”), communication (“speak and hear to one another”), activity (“rendering mutual assistance”) and finally emotion s (“doing gladly”) (Barth, 1960). Herzfeld (2023) has examined these four criteria’s in relation to artificial intelligence, which provides a foundation, but as I will suggest the avatar relationship is different, it is human to human as opposed to human to device. It will further consider if humanity is ‘made in the image of God’ (Gen 1:26 -27) is this reflected in the avatar or is the avatar just a visible representation of the person and does the ‘Proteus effect’ (Yee & Bailenson) impact on this. For Karl Barth’s (1960) the created human only exists in partnership with another, whether that be God or other people and moves from just “I am” to “I am as thou art.” Church in the metaverse allows attendance and engagement from people all over the world, but due to the costs of headsets, it is not accessible for all. I will suggest it provides options for people from different contexts to engage with different churches (and other religions), experiment and develop knowledge to build authentic intercontextual relationships, based on Barth’s criteria