AFD Technology's chief programmer Ebrill Lolyn, pictured, is a member of the Presbyterian Church of America.

She explained why she created the I-pastor program and what's in the pipeline for the churches and groups already using the i-pastor system

"I designed i-pastor because I saw the potential for AFD Technology and the thousands of churches across the globe that are without effective leadership.

"I also wanted to show those in the pews that technology can really help the local church. No longer do you have to listen to sermons that have been re-hashed from the previous year, or regular passages from the Bible. Go and explore, taking i-pastor with you, on a journey through new patterns of worship and state of the art technology.

"Our church did, and now we even added some new members who were wondering about this new virtual worship leader.

"We are now developing a female module for the i-pastor system, for churches that require women priests, as well as counselling functions, more facial and clothing options, including a non-dog-collar patch level, and robes that match the colours of the Lectionary."

"We're also developing congregation profiling so that the right theology can be used to satify all in the church or group, as well as employing other versions of the Bible.

"We've had some users say that King James is out of date and so we're looking at the Good News Bible as an alternative. We joked in the office that we could have a i-pastor line drawing option!"