St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Church on the web

The world-wide web is the modern way to communicate, whether you love it or hate it. It does have its viruses and its pornography, but it also has a mine of useful information about practically everything you could want to know. For instance, you can discover all about the autism or the Down’s Syndrome that the Vicar’s children have, or the third-world development or narrowboat holidays he is keen on (at www.oneworld.org/autism_uk or www.downs-syndrome.org.uk or www.farmafrica.org.uk or www.ownerships.co.uk)*. Even if you’ve never clicked yourself, you can do it at the library or get your grandchildren to do it for you.

Bradford Diocese now has the best web-site of any Church of England Diocese, and anyone who has visited it will know that it is a mine of useful information. It also contains things which you can’t possibly imagine you’ll ever want to know. Along with all its other features, there is now an offer to parishes to take up a small amount of space (500kb) for their own web-site. “If you are thinking of making a start with a web site, I would heartily recommend this approach,” says Chris Wright, the webmaster.

So we launched two pages of our own on 7th December, and since then we have been gradually expanding the site. The idea is to give a “Cook’s tour” of what we do in our church and why we do it, with individual pages on:

• events and services,
• special events (e.g. Christmas),
• who’s who and who to contact,
• our vision, aims and objectives,
• notice-board / notices sheet,
• how to book christenings etc.,
• the building and its history,
• church groups (e.g. MU),
• a taster of the Link,

and probably a few others. We also hope to be able to direct visitors to any other sites which local groups may have (e.g. the historical society, men’s forum, rambling club...).

What is the site for? To start with it is a kind of directory for those who don’t have the Link or notices sheet to hand. But we need to face the fact that nowadays many people don’t subscribe to church magazines. Instead they surf. Wouldn’t Jesus and the apostles have gone to where people listen? Shouldn’t the church nowadays put effort into communicating where people will read and think? The world-wide web?

John Hartley

* Since this article was written, some of the above sites have moved, and the new addresses are:
www.nas.org.uk for the National Autistic Society,
www.dsa-uk.com for the Down's Syndrome Association,
www.farmafrica.org.uk for FARM Africa ("Food & Agricultural Research Management Ltd"),
www.ownerships.co.uk for OwnerShips Ltd.

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. January 2002, Page 1.
Home Page. Index of articles. In this issue: (January 2002) Vicar's Letter, On the web, Jelleys, Electoral Roll, Question, Question.	Church on the web The world-wide web is the modern way to communicate, whether you love it or hate it. It does have its viruses and its pornography, but it also has a mine of useful information about practically everything you could want to know. For instance, you can discover all about the autism or the Down’s Syndrome that the Vicar’s children have, or the third-world development or narrowboat holidays he is keen on (at www.oneworld.org/autism_uk or www.downs-syndrome.org.uk or www.farmafrica.org.uk or www.ownerships.co.uk). Even if you’ve never clicked yourself, you can do it at the library or get your grandchildren to do it for you. Bradford Diocese now has the best web-site of any Church of England Diocese, and anyone who has visited it will know that it is a mine of useful information. It also contains things which you can’t possibly imagine you’ll ever want to know. Along with all its other features, there is now an offer to parishes to take up a small amount of space (500kb) for their own web-site. “If you are thinking of making a start with a web site, I would heartily recommend this approach,” says Chris Wright, the webmaster. So we launched two pages of our own on 7th December, and since then we have been gradually expanding the site. The idea is to give a “Cook’s tour” of what we do in our church and why we do it, with individual pages on: • events and services, • special events (e.g. Christmas), • who’s who and who to contact, • our vision, aims and objectives, • notice-board / notices sheet, • how to book christenings etc., • the building and its history, • church groups (e.g. MU), • a taster of the Link, and probably a few others. We also hope to be able to direct visitors to any other sites which local groups may have (e.g. the historical society, men’s forum, rambling club...). What is the site for?* To start with it is a kind of directory for those who don’t have the Link or notices sheet to hand. But we need to face the fact that nowadays many people don’t subscribe to church magazines. Instead they surf. Wouldn’t Jesus and the apostles have gone to where people listen? Shouldn’t the church nowadays put effort into communicating where people will read and think? The world-wide web? John Hartley * Since this article was written, some of the above sites have moved, and the new addresses are: www.nas.org.uk for the National Autistic Society, www.dsa-uk.com for the Down's Syndrome Association, www.farmafrica.org.uk for FARM Africa ("Food & Agricultural Research Management Ltd"), www.ownerships.co.uk for OwnerShips Ltd.
Top of page.	This web page was last updated on 5th July 2002.