St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Helsinki, Finland, recently held a groundbreaking church service, most of which was crafted by artificial intelligence. The event, which featured sermons, music, and visuals generated by AI tools, drew a surprisingly large crowd and ignited a conversation about the potential role of AI in religious settings.
The service, held on March 4, 2025, showcased a compelling narrative of good versus evil. Jesus, depicted with flowing robes, long hair, and a beard, faced off against Satan, who, in a modern suit and a menacing expression, engaged in a dialogue created entirely by AI. Avatars of the church’s pastors, alongside an AI-generated representation of a former Finnish president who died in 1986, added to the innovative presentation, reading from the Old Testament.
This experimental service attracted over 120 attendees, significantly more than the church typically sees on a weeknight. The Rev. Petja Kopperoinen, who spearheaded the project, noted the excitement of seeing AI’s potential realized. “Usually when people talk about AI, they are talking about what AI can do in the future. But the future is now. … AI can do all those things that people think that it can maybe do in 10 years or so,” Kopperoinen said.
While the service was widely enjoyed, many attendees voiced reservations. Taru Nieminen, a member of the congregation stated, “It was pretty entertaining and fun, but it didn’t feel like a Mass or a service. … It felt distant. I didn’t feel like they were talking to me.”
The Rev. Kari Kanala, vicar at St. Paul’s, echoed the sentiment, emphasizing the importance of human connection: “The warmth of the people is what people need.”
The AI-driven service was a culmination of weeks of work by Kopperoinen, who utilized several AI platforms. Technologies such as Open AI’s ChatGPT-4o wrote the sermons (excluding biblical texts), Suno composed music resembling pop, and Synthesia generated video avatars of the clergy. This involved bringing in footage to allow the AI to effectively generate content. Another tool, Akool, handled the creation of the avatar of former Finnish President Urho Kekkonen.
Despite the success of the event, there were clearly defined limits. The Helsinki service did not involve the forgiveness of sins or the Eucharist. Kopperoinen noted the importance of human oversight, highlighting that AI-generated content requires fact-checking and editing. AI often relies on stereotypes, he explained, and can sometimes be reluctant to create religious content, as evidenced by ChatGPT’s initial reluctance to write dialogue featuring Jesus and Satan.
Concerns about the environmental impact of AI tools, such as their high energy consumption, were also taken into account. Some critics within the Finnish Lutheran Church expressed concerns about the environmental costs of using AI for entertainment.
Jeera Pulkkinen, a student at the service, observed that while she liked the songs, they “lacked the kind of soul the humans have.” Eeva Salonen, a development officer, perceived the service as “more like a performance,” feeling it less personal than it would be with human involvement.
The Rev. Kopperoinen believes that AI will not supplant the essential role of human pastors. “It can’t be empathetic towards people. AI can’t really answer your questions in a spiritual way,” he stated. However, both Kopperoinen and Kanala envision a significant role for AI within the church. St. Paul’s already uses AI for bookkeeping, and Kopperoinen uses ChatGPT to draft sermons and locate relevant biblical verses.
Tom Stoneham, a philosophy professor at the University of York who specializes in ethical AI systems, points out that AI can only replace humans in transactional contexts. He emphasized the unique value of a human touch in religious settings, noting that it’s the humanity that adds value to the situation.
Anna Puzio, a researcher on technology ethics, believes that religious groups should experiment with AI to help shape its responsible development and design. This allows for a measured approach to incorporating the technology into religious contexts, as well as recognizing what it will and will not be able to accomplish.
