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Do
you think of your Web site as a brochure of information
that only needs updating every couple of years? Or do
you think of it as another parish newsletter? At St.
Paul’s Episcopal Church of Fairfield, Connecticut, (www.stpaulsfairfield.org)
we have designed our site to serve as an
Internet magazine for parish communication, news, outreach, and
ministry. In addition to carrying the weekly and monthly
news (from our published bulletins), we use our site to
archive special prayers, sermons, and the Rector’s
articles. Furthermore, we’re able to showcase inspirational and amusing art, which
enhances
our faith in Christ. Of course, special parish events
are shared in our special photo gallery and we are
always finding new ways to promote our volunteers
and causes through the site.
Creating a Parish Web site
There are a variety of free or economical hosting
services that are good, but limiting in useable
space. Because our Web site serves as a vital means of delivering St. Paul’s mission of an
open Christian community of faith and fellowship, our
Rector and Vestry have budgeted the monthly subscription
fee for a minimal business “starter” site
offered by the Internet hosting service (costing about $20 a month).
This gives us a
significant amount of more allowable storage space for
large documents (via such as Adobe PDFs), photographs and
art.
At St. Paul’s,
all but the monthly Internet service fee is donated by
parishioners or obtained at no cost, making the small
business site within our communications budget very
affordable.
Currently my husband and I contribute the
design, software
and
technical expertise as a part of our
ministry for the church, but soon we will pass this task
along to another willing parishioner. Initially my
husband and I used our backgrounds in print publishing to
help the clergy to develop a
comprehensive Web site. We all worked to give each area of
St. Paul’s a detailed representative section.
Although this type of site requires more upkeep, we have
a willing group of multi-talented parishioners to help.
The office manager emails the Sunday bulletin to me each
Friday and the staff oversees the maintenance of their
various sections. We have a very apt and quick-minded
proofreader, a few
top amateur photographers, and a responsive audience to
let us know where changes are needed. Now that the main template has
been created, I simply go in once a week to update the
bulletin and once a month to change the art and keep the
site fresh.
Photos
by the Rev. M. A. Osborn
Using Art To Enhance Our Message
We continually use the art offered by the Episcopal
Church & Visual Arts (ECVA) at
www.ecva.org
as a wonderful means of developing the inspiration and
joy of our faith. There are other Christian art Web
sites, but ECVA has a large collection of beautiful
images that follow the Episcopal Church seasons. We also
use the art to help educate the youth, such as with the
Stations of the Cross.
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