SAKRALITAS VIRTUAL: MAKNA SAKRAL DALAM IBADAH SALAT JUMAT VIRTUAL DI INDONESIA

This article discusses sacred experience in virtual worship. It focuses on virtual Friday prayer via zoom application leaded by Wawan Gunawan Abdul Wahid, scholar from Yogyakarta, which has been holding this ritual since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Using phenomenological approach, this research argues that congregation of virtual Friday prayers experience sacredness during the prayers through two conditionals: attachment and continuousness in a ritual. Devoutness in prayer emerges within engagement in a ritual. The sacred atmosphere ascends when the congregation of the virtual Friday prayer enter the virtual room for Friday prayer. This virtual Friday room demarcates an offline profane room from sacred virtual room for Friday prayer. In addition, the continually engagement in virtual Friday prayer contribute to devoutness and sacred feeling of the congregation. The engagement of the congregation stimulates collective bond among participant in virtual Friday prayers.