NewsletterNovember2004Rev - page 5 of 7

WEBSITE? WHY HAVE A

“What’s the point in having a church website? I

mean, after you put up the time for services,

that’s pretty much it, isn’t it?”

Yes, service times are on the home page--

followed by a link to the coming week’s lessons

for those who want to get ahead a little. But a

church has a lot more events than just services.

Our Calendar page has both monthly and

weekly calendars listing these events (and the

Rota), while the home and Activities pages will

usually have narratives telling you what they’re

all about. Major Diocesan and Three Church

upcoming events are also discussed on the

home page. Best yet, everything is (well,

usually) kept up to date, so you don’t have to

stand in an empty church waiting for that

rescheduled event to actually happen in a week

or two. Upcoming youth events are on the (you

guessed it) Youth page.

Or perhaps you’re feeling nostalgic and want

to remember what we were doing a few months

ago. There are lots of pictures of Kids Karnival

and River Rafting up now, and the Redeemer

Review is online, too. Major sermons, like Rev.

Carol’s recent confirmation sermon in Grace

Cathedral, are linked on the Sermons page. And

if the Sermons page doesn’t give you enough

substance, take a look at The Rev’s Blog, where

some of the thoughts underlying the sermons

may be explored.

If your younger kids are bored, there’s a Bible

Stories Coloring Book on the Kid’s Corner page.

If you want to find the current religion news

here in the United States and around the

world, the Episcopal News Service and

moreover.com feeds are on the World News

page. There is a lot going on, and you’ll seldom

learn about it from the local papers.

The Links page carries links to social ministry

and church sites that Redeemer has worked

with, like Starcross Community and Ritter

Center, and Grace Cathedral and St. Paul’s.

More importantly, it also has links to religious

sources– like all the Books of Common Prayer,

Online Study Bibles, and BeliefNet, and prayer

practices such as Lectio Divina and Centering

Prayer. Yes, folks, even in a community

centered religion like Christianity, some of this

stuff can best be discovered at home by the

soft gray light of your computer monitor.

And this really is only the beginning.

Redeemer’s website is still so young that it

doesn’t yet show up directly on Google, though

some places that link to it will appear. As it

gets older, and receives input from you, it will

become ever more distinctively our website.

So here’s the challenge: go to

www.redeemermarin.org, see what you like and

don’t like, think about what features should be

added or deleted, and let us know. How? Why,

through the Email Us page, of course. Just

click on the webmaster’s link there or at the

bottom of any page. And unlike that online

fixit site you wish you hadn’t subscribed to, a

prompt response is guaranteed.