Virtual versus incarnational

My colleague Richard observes at Caught by the Light that:

A lot going on in the Anglican Communion these days is in someone's head or ephemeral bits and bytes set to disappear when a plug is pulled. Too much, I'd say. And it's not always rooted in what's real, what's incarnational.

The other attractive thing about a virtual reality is that we can walk away at any time with impunity. It's safe for us.
…
And as we all know in the blogosphere, I can always write or say things in a virtual church that I couldn't say or write if I were facing a real human being, a breathing person made in the Image of God, with nothing between us but air and the charity not to throw punches, metaphorical or otherwise.
…
The problem is that while our detractors keep us virtual, they remain virtual to us as well. Someone(s) at some point, on one side or the other, will have to break this pattern, before Christ can fully reconcile the real, incarnational, fleshy, crucified and risen center of our fragile and fractious Communion.

By all means, read it all.
I responded:

Richard,
You are not only old-fashioned where it counts, you have also confirmed suspicions that you are truly Anglican in that you have emphasized once again the Incarnation and its implications for lives lived in the flesh and in history.
Your point about keeping those with whom we disagree “virtual” is spot on. It is so much easier to disagree with someone we don't know face to face, to analyze their reported word and alleged deed seeking fault, to denounce their sins and errors, to vilify and demonize. At a distance our shared humanity is easier to deny, though it remains bedrock reality no matter how we ignore it.

The issue of incarnational versus virtual is considered from a different perspective in this excellent comment by Mercy Amba Oduyoye (that I have lifted wholesale from Jane R.):

[T]he Church cannot describe itself as holy and mean that it is separate from the world and the world's agenda. Stating doctrines inside the church will not liberate unless the Church gets out into the streets, heals the sick and confronts the unjust. The Church is in the world that God loved, and has to work for the well-being of the world. Seeing that God's presence cannot be limited to organized Christianity, the Church does well to see where God is at work and to promote those salvific acts.

--the BB