Now, St. Paul's Church will be hosting Finland's first worship service entirely powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
In practice, the AI tool will write the sermon, prayers, hymns and music. It will also do the talking, using the faces and voices of priests familiar to the congregation on screen.
"It's really scary to see yourself as a product of AI," says Petja Kopperoinen, a minister at St. Paul's parish.
He says the idea for the service began last autumn during a study trip to Geneva, Switzerland.
"There I heard that in Germany, in 2023, there was a worship service entirely produced by artificial intelligence. We decided to try the same in Finland," Kopperoinen explains.
Some things AI refused to do
For Kopperoinen, creating AI-aided sermons is a matter of feeding in a Bible verse relevant to the service in question and requesting the AI to generate a text that is suitable for a Lutheran congregation.
"I have never been satisfied with the first results. I have always had to add more depth to the text and ask the AI to do better," he notes.
Kopperoinen says that in the end, the AI does manage to make a suitable sermon, but it is not allowed to touch the Bible passages chosen for the service.
The AI has also been asked to come up with the lyrics and music for hymns for the service. Since their melodies will be unfamiliar to parishioners, human help will be needed.
"There will also be a real choir director at the service and a few standard hymns will be sung," Kopperoinen says, adding that he has taken the liberty of asking the AI for all kinds of content for the service.
But perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the AI itself drew a line that it would not cross.
"The AI replied that it cannot give absolution or blessings," he says, adding that he agrees.
"An AI can say the words, but it doesn't mean anything. It is not a human being who believes in anything," he points out.
Advance notice to bishop
The introduction of AI into worship is so novel a move that Kari Kanala, the vicar of St Paul's parish, decided to inform Bishop Teemu Laajasalo of the Diocese of Helsinki ahead of time.
"I think he is already used to the fact that St Paul's is proactive and experimental," he says.
According to Kanala, the bishop was pleased that the experiment was not a communion service.
Kanala himself admits he was initially sceptical about AI.
"However, I think that you need to move towards the things you oppose. The idea that the Church could be a locomotive and not a hand car interests me a lot," he explains.
The AI service at St. Paul's Church (Paavalinkirkko) will take place on Tuesday 4 March. During the same week, the church is also organising other special events.
Vicar Kanala is expecting feedback of "two kinds. There are those who see this as worth a try. And then there are those who will judge without seeing it."
A conversation starter
Meeting with people is a key job of the clergy. It involves humanity and empathy, both of which AI lacks.
"That's why a machine can never replace a human being," says Petja Kopperoinen.
"I think this is a conversation starter. It seems inevitably that artificial intelligence will come into the working life of each individual," he adds.
Kopperoinen says he has previously looked to AI for inspiration, but has not directly used the texts it produces.
So what is the rationale of an entire worship service generated by machine intelligence?
"My thinking is that the church needs to reach out to people. That's why you have to offer different things."
Kopperoinen says it is understandable that not everyone is interested in a regular 10am Sunday service.
"In the Bible, Paul is seen as a role model who went to places that had not yet been visited. It is therefore natural that it is St. Paul's parish in particular that reaches out to people who have never been reached before," he explains.
Plans for the upcoming AI service were first reported by the Helsinki Parish Union periodical Kirkko ja kaupunki.