Sydney churches are quietly joining the AI revolution, bringing live translation to services in a Day-of-Pentecost type experience.  

St James’, Berala has just installed two large-screen TVs to display a translation of the entire service in simplified Chinese and Persian.

As well, people can scan a QR code on their phone, which takes them to a webpage where they choose one of 32 languages (including English for the hearing impaired) and then read a translation on their own device.

“For many churches, cross-cultural ministry means hiring a pastor from that language group to run a separate service in that language,” says the Rev Mike Doyle, rector of Berala. “In our local area there are something like 150 different languages. It's well beyond our ability to hire a pastor for each of these languages.”

But for start-up costs of less than $5000 and an annual translation fee, the parish now has a booming outreach in the heart language of many locals.

Rector of Lakemba, the Rev Matt Dodd, is keen to explore the possibilities of the technology. Admittedly, he has one of the founders of the translation service, Sunflower AI, in his congregation. But he has found it invaluable in making connections. 

"We've had several members start attending church because of this technology,” he says. “They wouldn't attend church otherwise [because they want to attend church with their family]. They speak zero English, and they’re having a great time with us”

Mr Dodd describes the voice recognition of Sunflower as “utterly brilliant”.

"You can whisper, you can talk fast and it will transcribe what you say with incredible accuracy,” he says. “This is also a handy resource for English speakers who struggle with hearing”

Mr Doyle agrees. “As far as we have been able to tell; the translation is very good, with obvious exceptions such as idioms. For example, asking for ‘helpers to cook dinner for 40-odd people’ caused a bit of laughter.”

The technology may soon be able to upload music slides to translate lyrics more accurately.

At Kellyville Anglican Church, live translation is mainly for Mandarin, and senior minister the Rev Dave Keun counts one of his neighbours as an enthusiast. 

“He had come to church only once, because he doesn’t speak English,” he says. “Since we've done the translation, he hasn’t missed a service. Now Sunflower does audio translation as well, he is here every single week, with his headphones on, and he's started to grow and engage as a Christian. 

“That’s the sort of story we are keen to see repeated over and over, as the northwest changes and the diversity of cultures, not English-speaking people, grows. To have someone walk through the door and actually hear the gospel in their heart language, whereas previously, we didn't have that opportunity.”

In an unusual twist, the translation is working both ways. “We launched a Farsi-speaking service a couple of weeks ago,” Mr Keun says. “So we English speakers had a reverse experience of listening in Farsi and having a translation to English, which was really nice.”

Sunflower AI co-founder, Chuhao Liu, is encouraged by the take-up. 

“We started with just one church in February, and by August we’ve grown to around 40 churches,” he told Southern Cross. “The growth reflects how parishes are looking for new ways to connect with diverse congregations and make services more accessible.”

One word of caution, Mr Dodd concedes, is over-reliance. “If we rely on AI translation in our services, then we must make sure that people from a non-English speaking background have heart-language fellowship in other aspects of the life of our church.

"It's very exciting and we’re on the cusp of something big, wonderful and terrifying at the same time.”