ORGANISERS of the world's first virtual church have been forced to make emergency adjustments after rowdy cyber parishioners shouted profanities from the pews. Steve Goddard, from St Helens, is the deputy editor of the Ship of Fools, which was set up earlier this month and is available to worshippers on the internet. In the first 48 hours of operation, there were 60,000 visitors which crashed the main server that operates the place of worship. Attendance has now evened out to 20,000 worshippers per day. However, a few people have signed on under false names to cause abuse, leading to the organisers posting rules about worshippers behaviour Mr Goddard said: "We did have a few problems, like a guy who called himself Satan and went up to the pulpit to blaspheme. But Simon, the editor of Ship of Fools, told him not to and Satan apologised in our church, which we thought was great! "We've added a welcome and 'please respect this place' message which appears when people first walk into the church. "It says that this may feel like a chat room, but please do not swear, practise your chat-up lines, or harass others. "People come to the church to pray, talk to others and find quiet." Webmasters are also increasing the number of wardens on the site who can kick wrong-doers out of the computer building. Other hitches in the first week of operation have included the minister in the first service, Rev Jem Climes, completely disappearing when his computer crashed in York, England. However, despite the obvious teething problems, the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, has called the project a "gift from God". Launched last Tuesday, the first service drew a fairly small congregation, but through word of mouth the message of the website soon grew considerably. Mr Goddard added: "It's been fantastically successful. "There's a kind of meditative, worshipful atmosphere in the church itself, but people can go downstairs to the crypt where there is a coffee machine and sofas and people discuss issues that are important to them, like evolution." * YOU can go to church any time, but there are regular scheduled services as well, at www.churchoffools.com/ | 
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